ALEPPO
The Syrian official news agency SANA criticized U.S. President Barack Obama’s plan against the Islamic State (IS) as "support of terrorism", according to its official website on Thursday.
As a part of the strategy for “degrading and ultimately destroying” the Islamic State forces, Obama declared on Wednesday that the U.S. would not hesitate to take action against IS militants in Syria in addition to expanding the scope of airstrikes against the militant group in Iraq, as part of a broad coalition to root it out of the region.
During his address, he also called on Congress to give the administration additional authority and resources to train and equip moderate Syrian opposition fighters.
"In the fight against ISIL, we cannot rely on an [Bashar al] Assad regime that terrorizes its people, a regime that will never regain the legitimacy it has lost," he said. "Instead, we must strengthen the opposition as the best counterweight to extremists like ISIL."
According to the SANA news, Washington’s policies support “terrorism in Syria” and obstruct any road to a permanent solution to the ongoing Syrian crisis.
As the Syrian civil war enabled IS to establish a safe haven, several analysts and U.S. officials had previously noted that IS could not be uprooted unless its Syrian bases were taken care of.
President Barack Obama authorized an air campaign in Iraq in early August in order to help Kurdish peshmerga forces and the Iraqi army in their fight against IS.
Islamic State militants control large parts of Iraq and Syria.
www.aa.com.tr/en
