BEIRUT, July 31. /TASS/. 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.
Mekdad added that Damascus also demanded the withdrawal of the Washington-led international anti-terrorist coalition forces from Syrian territory, as the coalition "serves exclusively the aims of Israel and the US."
A large share of the Syrian provinces of Hasakah, Deir ez-Zor and Raqqa, located in the east and northeast of the country, is currently controlled by the US-backed Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Since 2015, the US command has established nine military bases in this area. At the end of 2019, the then US President Donald Trump approved a plan that would leave several hundred US troops in Syria. One of their main tasks was to ensure control of oil fields in the northeast and east of the country. Damascus views the US military presence on Syrian territory as illegal occupation.