Assad Praises Soviet Weapons Used to Foil US-led Missile Attack

Syrian President Bashar Assad praised the quality of Soviet-made air defense systems that he argues resulted in the failure of the U.S., U.K., and French bombing attack in Syria Saturday, Russian lawmakers said after a meeting with the Syrian president in Damascus Sunday.

RELATED:
Latin America Leaders Condemn US-led Attack on Syria

“Yesterday we were faced with an American aggression. And we were able to repel it with Soviet missiles from the 1970s. Since the 1990s, the American films presented the Russian weapons as lagging. And now we see who really lags behind,” Assad was cited as saying by MP Dmitry Sablin.

Earlier, the Russian Defense Ministry said that Soviet-made S-125, S-200, Buk, Kvadrat and Osa systems, used by the Syrian military, intercepted 71 out of the 103 missiles fired by the U.S. and its allies.

According to the president's [Assad's] point of view, this [the attack] was aggression and we share this position. He has highly appreciated Russian weapons, which showed supremacy over the arms of the aggressors," Russian State Duma lawmaker Sergei Zheleznyak said according to RT.

Zheleznyak also confirmed that Assad praised Soviet arms made in the 1970s, which were used to repel the missile attack, carried out by the U.S. and its allies.

"Since 1990s we have seen in American movies that the Russian weaponry is "backward." And now we see, who is really backward," Assad was quoted as saying by a Russian MP refering to his military’s ability top down most of the missiles.

Sablin reported Assad as saying Syrian air defenses had demonstrated their efficiency, the Arab Republic citizens were "no longer afraid of NATO."

RELATED:
Corbyn: No Legal Basis for US, British Strikes Against Syria

Assad stated that Syria would continue its independent development "despite the agenda, imposed by the West."

Assad also stated that the U.S.-U.K.-French attack has not only "consolidated the peoples of Russia and Syria, but all the nations, which are guided by the norms of international law," Sablin said.

He said during a meeting with Russian lawmakers that the cooperation between Russia and Syria should resist the "aggressive policy of the West."

Following an overnight April 14 missile attack, launched by the U.S. alongside France and the U.K., the Syrian president said the strikes came as the West realized that it had lost control of the situation in the Arab Republic.