Syrian Minister Says US Ignores 'Lessons of Afghanistan'
In an exclusive interview with Al-Monitor, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem, who rarely speaks to the Western press, cast violence in Syria as a war against Salafi terrorists backed by predominantly Sunni Arab nations. "If ending the violence was in the hands of the Syrian government, then I assure you we would have ended it yesterday," Moallem said.
In an exclusive interview with Al-Monitor, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem, who rarely speaks to the Western press, cast the violence in Syria as a war against Salafi terrorists, who are backed by predominantly Sunni Arab nations that expected the Bashar al-Assad regime to fall quickly amid the Arab uprisings that swept Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and Yemen.
But those who anticipated Assad's fall and armed anti-regime militants miscalculated, Moallem said, and the result has been the dramatic escalation of armed conflict that has taken an estimated 20,000 Syrian lives over the past 20 months.
