"US coddling of Israel’s interests prolongs" conflict in Syria, says top Syrian envoy

It is impossible to end the Syrian crisis because of US meddling, since Washington has been coddling the interests of Israel, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said in an interview with the Rossiya-24 TV channel.

"The Syrian people and the Syrian government want the crisis to end today. However, it is impossible because of external interference led by the United States," he said, adding, "this interference satisfies the interests of Israel and runs counter to those of the Syrian people."

"The main goal of this intervention is to prolong the crisis," Muallem pointed out. "This is why I cannot provide a specific time on when it will end. However, I can confirm that our people and leadership very much hope that the crisis will come to an end soon," the Syrian top diplomat said.
Syria crisis

The United States’ attempts to destabilize the situation in Syria are bound to fail and will only lead to human casualties, Muallem added.

"They [the Americans] have trained certain groups of Syrians, which have various names, to destabilize the situation in Syria. In this connection, they have carried out a military operation in the city of Palmyra. However, their attack failed as two of the attackers were caught and confessed to having been trained at the Al-Tanf base under the command of the US military. This is why the United States’ attempts will fail, leading only to great human casualties," Muallem stressed.

He pointed out that "the Americans many times told the Russians that they would withdraw from the Al-Tanf area, located in southern Syria near the border with Jordan and Iraq, but they have not yet fulfilled this promise."

On September 1, Syrian troops seized militants sent to carry out terrorist attacks in Palmyra. According to the Russian Center for Reconciliation of the Opposing Sides in Syria, US instructors deployed to the Al-Tanf base trained the saboteurs.