US should leave Syria on its own before it is forced out — Syrian MFA

Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad has called on the United States to withdraw its forces from the territory of his country before it is forced to do so. He was speaking in Tehran during a joint press conference with his Iranian counterpart Hosein Amir Abdollahian, broadcast by the Syrian TV channel Al Ikhbaria.

"We keep telling the Americans who commit crimes [against the Syrian people] on a daily basis that this cannot continue. We say to the US Congress and to everyone who supports this US aggression [against Syria], which reaches a level of war crimes and crimes against humanity, that the Syrian people will not tolerate it indefinitely. We say that it would be better for the US army to leave Syrian territories before it is forced out," Mekdad said.

The Syrian foreign minister emphasized that the US military presence in his country was illegal because "Syria did not ask for it," and is aimed at supporting the activities of terrorist groups, weakening the Syrian state and "preventing any solution to the Syrian problem."

In particular, he said, the US maintains its presence in the al-Tanf area at the junction of the borders of Syria, Iraq and Jordan in order to prevent cooperation among these countries and turn the area into a terrorist stronghold. Moreover, Mekdad sees no difference between actions by the Islamic State terrorist group (banned in Russia), Israel, the US and a number of Western countries toward Syria, as they are all involved in committing crimes against the Syrian people.