Assad is correct in calling US troops in Syria invaders: Analyst

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has correctly called the US troops in Syria invaders because under international law foreign governments can’t deploy troops to sovereign countries, senior analyst Ken Stone says.

Assad told Chinese TV station Phoenix on Saturday that "any foreign troops coming to Syria without our invitation ... are invaders," but indicated that there was still room for potential cooperation between Damascus and Washington.

The counter-terrorism fight “cannot be from the air, it should be in cooperation with the troops on the ground, that’s why the Russians succeeded,” Assad said.

Stone, a member of the Hamilton Coalition to Stop the War, told press TV on Saturday that “President Assad is absolutely correct in calling the US troops in Syria invaders because under international law foreign governments can’t station troops or build airfields in sovereign countries, they can’t overfly sovereign countries, they can’t level economic sanctions on their own without the approval of the UN Security Council, and they certainly can’t insert proxy armies to destabilize sovereign countries and try an effect regime changes.”

“So he is absolutely right,” he emphasized.

“Former US secretary of state John Kerry used to talk now and then about US plan B for Syria which was in fact a partition plan, because the US plan for regime change in Syria did not work for all of Syria,” the analyst stated.

“Trump has talked about changing US foreign policy from the policy that was enunciated by John Kerry under Obama. He talked about ending the regime change policies of the United States in the Middle East. He talked about cooperation with Russia to fight terrorism,” he added.

Stone said Trump “basically talked about detente and rapprochement with Russia.  But in office he has been facing fiercest opposition from Democrats, the mainstream media, and US intelligence services. So it’s been an ugly situation in Washington since he was inaugurated. We are yet to see how that will turn out.”

“But in my opinion the US government under Trump should accept what is implicitly in President Assad’s statement, in his comments” that US military forces are “invaders” in Syria because they were not invited into the country, he argued.

“It’s an invitation to the United States to coordinate with the Syrian government against the terrorists in Syria.  And I personally think President Trump would be wise to accept President Assad’s invitation,” he noted.

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