Syrian President Bashar Al Assad said US President Donald Trump prioritising the fight against Daesh was promising although it was too early to expect any practical steps, state news agency Sana reported on Tuesday.

Trump has indicated he might cut US support for Syrian rebels and might help Syria in the fight against Daesh.

He has made defeating Daesh a core goal of his presidency and signed an executive order asking the Pentagon, the joint chiefs of staff and other agencies to submit a preliminary plan on how to proceed within 30 days.

Al Assad was quoted by Sana as telling a group of Belgian reporters: “I believe this is promising but we have to wait and it’s too early to expect anything practical.” In a tweet on Monday, Trump said: “The threat from radical Islamic terrorism is very real, just look at what is happening in Europe and the Middle-East. Courts must act fast!” Al Assad was also quoted as saying that US-Russian cooperation in stepping up the fight against the militants would have positive repercussions.

Al Assad has also said that “defending” his country in a time of war was more important than any international tribunal that may be brought against his government later.

According to an English-language transcript of the interviews published by Syrian state news agency Sana on Tuesday, Al Assad accused UN institutions of acting unfairly towards his country.

“We all know that the United Nations institutions are not unbiased, they are biased because of the American influence and the French and British, mainly,” he said.

“They are only politicised to implement the agenda of those countries,” he added.

Syria’s conflict first broke out in March 2011 with widespread protests that descended into violence.

Asked whether he was concerned about a potential court case brought against the regime at the UN’s highest court in The Hague, Al Assad said he and other Syrian officials “don’t care”.

“For me, as president, when I do my duty, the same for the government and for the army, to defend our country, we don’t look to this issue, we don’t care about it,” he said.

“We have to defend our country by every means, and when we have to defend it by every means, we don’t care about this court, or any other international institution,” Al Assad added.

The UN General Assembly in December agreed to begin gathering evidence on war crimes in Syria as a first step towards prosecuting those responsible for atrocities there.

At the time, Syria’s ambassador Bashar Al Jafaari slammed the measure, calling it a “flagrant interference in the internal affairs of a UN member-state.

source : gulfnews