Syrian President Assad Believes British Airstrike Will Only Make Matters Worse in His Country?

Syrian President, Bashar Assad, said that the British airstrikes against the Islamic State in Syria are bound to fail. In an interview, the Syrian leader said that the IS cannot be defeated with mere airstrikes unless they are coordinating with forces on the ground.

This statement came just after British warplanes launched their attacks on Syria last Thursday, hours after the parliament voted to authorize said strikes.

The Washington Post reported that Assad pointed out that the only strikes that have worked against ISIS so far are those carried out by Russia, which cooperated with Syrian government forces. Since Moscow began their campaign, Syrian troops were able to capture areas from the extremist group.

The Syrian President also mocked British Prime Minister, David Cameron, for pointing out that there are 70,000 moderate Syrian rebels on ground. Assad stated, "Let me be frank and blunt about this. This is a new episode in a long series of David Cameron's classical farce, to be very frank. This is not acceptable. Where are they? Where are the 70,000 thousand moderates that he is talking about?"

He continued, "that is what they always talk about: moderate groups in Syria. This is a farce based on offering the public factoids instead of facts."

Speaking about the British airstrikes, Assad said that they are "harmful and illegal," adding that it "will support terrorism as what happened after the coalition started its operation."

The coalition he is speaking of refers to the US-led group that began launching strikes in September 2014, and while IS lost territory in northern and central Syria since then, the rebel group actually expanded their hold in other parts of the country. Militants have captured large areas and proclaimed a Caliphate to rule over the Muslims.

Assad said about the situation, "This is like a cancer. You cannot cut the cancer. You have to extract it."

Meanwhile, Reuters said that Cameron opposes the type of government Assad is leading in Syria, where the more-than-four-year-old civil war has forced millions of refugees to flee the country.

In setting out his strategy, the British Prime Minister similarly stated that airstrikes would not be enough to end the war that has caused hundreds and thousands of lives. He shared that Britain is currently pursuing a multifaceted approach, designed to defeat the Islamic State. At the same time, he also wants to deliver a political and humanitarian solution for the war-torn country.