"No, definitely we cannot and we don't have the will and we don't want, for one simple reason - because we cannot be in an alliance with countries which support terrorism" ,- in an interview with BBC, Syrian president Bashar al-Assad gave the following explanation for his unwillingness to join US-led coalition against “Islamic State” terrorist organization. At the same time commenting on the efficiency of the air attacks by US-led coalition in Syria, Bashar al-Assad noted that they cannot defeat terrorist group as long as members of coalition do not decide to cooperate with Syrian ground troops.
In the interview Syrian president once more restated its position according to which the US with its allies violates international law by conducting air strikes in Syria without having the consent of the Syrian government: “They easily trample over international law, which is about our sovereignty now, so they don't talk to us, we don't talk to them.” Though, it should be mentioned that before the strikes, the US had declared that it has the consent of Damascus.
In this context it is important to notice that in spite of the absence of dialogue Bashar al-Assad admitted that Damascus indirectly receives information about air-strikes from the US-led coalition: “Sometimes, they convey a message, a general message. There is no dialogue. There's, let's say, information, but not dialogue”. In this sense Bashar al-Assad particularly noted that they receive information by third parties, as an example of an indirect source of information president of Syria referred to Iraq.
The accusations according to which Syrian government forces use barrel bombs (type of oil barrel or similar cylindrical container which is filled with petrol, nails or other crude shrapnel as well as with explosives) against civilians Bashar al-Assad called as a "childish story".
"I haven't heard of army using barrels, or maybe cooking pots. We have bombs, missiles and bullets... There are no barrel bombs, we don't have barrels. There are no indiscriminate weapons. When you shoot, you aim, and when you shoot, when you aim, you aim at terrorists in order to protect civilians."
It can be stated that this kind of re-stated tough positioning from the Syrian president Assad aims at sending clear message to the West that his positions in the country continue to remain strong and he is not going to make any concessions. The timing of this message is not by chance either; with the intensified round of negotiations between Russian and the West over Ukrainian crisis, the president of Syria aims at convincing the West that their possible efforts to make Russia step back from its positions on Syria are going to be useless.