Syrian Official: We’ll Cooperate with Obama Against ISIS if He Asks Assad Nicely

Top Syrian Official: We’ll Cooperate with Obama against ISIS If He Asks Assad Nicely (National Review Online)

Syria’s deputy foreign minister Faisal Mekdad says that Bashar Assad is ready to cooperate with a U.S. military campaign against the Islamic State in his country — as long as President Obama agrees to get in touch with the brutal dictator and coordinate a strategy.

Mekdad was interviewed in Damascus by NBC’s Bill Neely about President Obama’s Wednesday night speech, in which the president announced American plans to bomb the Islamic State within Syria. Assad’s government, which has been battling the Islamic State and other rebel groups since 2011, appears open to the idea of working with the U.S. military against a common enemy, despite almost being bombed by the U.S. just one year previously.