Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad said the United States’ missile strikes in Syria undermine reputation of President Donald Trump as they benefit terrorists and groups that seek to derail international reconciliation efforts.
Talking to Sputnik on Monday, Mekdad said Syria will find ways to protect itself with Russian support against possible repeated US attacks.
“We believe that such attacks undermine the reputation of the US inside and outside the US,” he stated.
Mekdad stressed that US President Donald Trump “is now contradicting his all campaign promises, and this demonstrates the dishonesty of US leaders.”
“This aggression is support to terrorist groups or all those who seek the failure of efforts that are being made efforts by the UN or our Russian friends in Astana or Geneva,” Mekdad said. “I can confirm that Syria, with the support of our Russian friends, will be able to find ways to defend itself against these missiles or repeated attempts at aggression,” he added.
On April 7, the United States launched 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at the Syrian military airfield in Shairat. US President Donald Trump said that the attack was a response to the alleged chemical weapon use in Syria’s Idlib province on April 4, which resulted in the death of over 80 people, an incident which Washington blames on the Syrian government.
Turkey-Iran Talks
Commenting on private talks between Turkey and Iran on Syria, Mekdad said has requested a closed-doors meeting in Iran next week to conceal its stance ahead of the next round of Astana negotiations.
The Tehran talks are scheduled for April 18-19, followed by the May 3-4 talks in the Kazakh capital.
“The Turkish government asked the organizers of the meeting not to allow the press, likely so that it did not know the position of the Turkish government,” Mekdad said.
Meanwhile, Mekdad said the Syrian government was losing confidence in UN Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura but will continue working with him as long as he is in office.
“We have long been talking about the loss of confidence in de Mistura, but we will continue to cooperate while he represents the UN,” the Syrian diplomat said.
Source: Sputnik
