阿薩德：若俄空襲失敗,中東將崩塌
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said Sunday that the whole Middle East would be destroyed if Russia's aerial bombardment of militants opposed to his regime does not succeed.
"The alliance between Russia, Syria, Iraq and Iran must succeed or else the whole region will be destroyed," Mr. Assad told Iranian state television. But he added that "the chances of success for this coalition are great and not insignificant."
Mr. Assad's comments came as Russia intensified its airstrikes against the insurgents. Moscow announced that it carried out 20 missions targeting 10 Islamic State training camps, arms depots and command posts in the last 24 hours in Idlib province.
The U.S., however, accuses Russia of seeking to support Mr. Assad by targeting Western-backed opponents of his regime, instead of Islamic State fighters that a U.S.-led coalition has been bombing for more than a year.
U.S. President Barack Obama said Friday that the United States would not conduct "a proxy war" with Russia in Syria. But one of Mr. Obama's chief foreign policy foes, Senator John McCain, told cnn Sunday that "of course" Washington and Moscow are already effectively engaged in a conflict in Syria.
"We don't have a strategy" in Syria, said McCain, the Arizona senator who lost the 2008 presidential election to Mr. Obama. He said Russia, by starting its aerial attack in Syria last week with only an hour's notice to Washington of its intentions, is "treating the United States with disdain and contempt."
Most of Russia's Sunday strikes were located in Idlib province in western Syria, while others hit near the de facto Islamic State capital of Raqqa near Syria's border with Turkey.敘利亞總統阿薩德星期天說，如果俄羅斯對反政府武裝的空襲沒有成功，那麼整個中東將被摧毀。
阿薩德對伊朗國家電視臺說：“俄羅斯、敘利亞和伊拉克組成的聯盟必須成功，否則整個地區將被摧毀。”但是他補充道，“這個聯盟成功的概率很大，並非微不足道”。
阿薩德發表上述這番言論的時候，俄羅斯加大了對激進分子的空襲。莫斯科方面說，俄羅斯在過去24個小時裏實施了20次空襲，擊中10個伊斯蘭國目標，其中包括訓練營、軍火庫和指揮部。
但是美國指責說，俄羅斯的打擊目標是西方支持的反阿薩德政權的反對派，而不是美國領導的聯盟空襲了一年多的伊斯蘭國激進分子，俄羅斯試圖以此來支持阿薩德。
美國總統奧巴馬星期五說，美國不會與俄羅斯在敘利亞發生“代理人戰爭”。但是奧巴馬在外交政策方面的主要對手之一的參議員麥凱恩星期天對cnn說，“當然”，華盛頓與莫斯科實際上已經在敘利亞發生了衝突。
這位在2008年總統大選中敗給了奧巴馬的來自亞利桑那州的參議員說，在敘利亞，“我們沒有戰略”。麥凱恩說，上個星期，俄羅斯在行動前一小時才知會華盛頓將在敘利亞境內開始空襲，俄羅斯這樣做“是在以蔑視和不屑的態度對待美國”。
俄羅斯星期天的大多數空襲目標都在敘利亞西部的伊德利卜省，也有些在伊斯蘭國組織實際上的首府， 靠近敘利亞與土耳其邊境城市，拉卡附近。
