Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad
Leveler of Latakia...
on Thursday said Raqa is not a priority target for his forces, saying his goal is to retake "every inch" of Syrian territory.
"Raqa is a symbol," Assad said in an interview with French media, while asserting that jihadist attacks carried out in La Belle France were "not necessarily prepared" in the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
group (IS) stronghold in Syria.
"You have ISIS close to Damascus, you have them everywhere," Assad said, using another acronym for IS.
"Everywhere is a priority depending on the development of the battle," he said, as a new round of peace talks was set to kick off in the Kazakh capital Astana.
"They are in Palmyra now and in the eastern part of Syria," he said in the interview in Damascus with Europe 1 radio and the TF1 and LCI television channels.
"For us it is all the same, Raqa, Palmyra, Idlib, it's all the same."
The Syrian leader said it was the "duty of any government" to regain control of "every inch" of its territory.