Assad says regime firepower ‘not affected’ by US strike

DAMASCUS — Syrian President Bashar Assad says a barrage of US missiles against a military airport after a suspected chemical attack has not diminished his government’s ability to carry out strikes.

“Our firepower, our ability to attack the terrorists hasn’t been affected by this strike,” he tells AFP on Wednesday in an exclusive interview in Damascus.

He says peace talks on resolving his country’s war are ineffective because Washington is “not serious” about ending the conflict.

“The United States is not serious in achieving any political solution. They want to use it as an umbrella for the terrorists,” Assad says.

He also warns that he would only allow an “impartial” external investigation of last week’s suspected chemical attack in Idlib province that killed over 80 people, including dozens of children.

“We can only allow any investigation when it’s impartial, when we make sure that unbiased countries will participate in this delegation in order to make sure that they won’t use it for politicized purposes.”

Assad ally Russia on Wednesday vetoed a draft UN Security Council resolution demanding Syria cooperate with an international investigation of the attack.

— AFP