Bashar Al-Assad
Bashar Al-AssadReuters

Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad said on Friday that negotiations between his country and the United States at the present moment would be a waste of time.

His comments came in an interview with the NTV channel and quoted by the Tass news agency. Assad’s administration posted a fragment of the interview on its official Telegram channel.

"The negotiations with the U.S. will not lead to anything right now, it’s a waste of time. We don’t want to talk with the Americans not because they’re American. We are ready to talk with anyone, if we can achieve results together. We think that the U.S. policy will not change in the future," Assad was quoted as having said when asked whether a meeting between him and President Donald Trump is possible.

American presidents become "hostages to lobbyists, media and big corporations," he claimed, adding, "They can tell you what you want to hear, but do the opposite. And the situation is becoming worse and worse.”

Assad has repeatedly rejected ties with the United States and other countries that support Syrian rebels, whom he calls “terrorists”.

Syria's government refers to all those who oppose it as "terrorists", including both jihadist rebels as well as rebels considered by the West to be “moderate”.

The United States and most European countries shut their embassies in Damascus after the government's bloody crackdown on protests that erupted in March 2011.

Ties have remained severed throughout the brutal civil war that followed, which has since killed more than 330,000 people.

Assad receives backing from Russia and Iran in his fight against rebels trying to oust him.

(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)