Syrian President Bashar Assad released a statement saying that countries supporting and financing the rebels in Syria and Iraq should stop in order to stop terrorism, 

A meeting was held on Tuesday in Damascus with Falah al-Fayadh, the national security officer of Iraq as they discussed about the ongoing activities and plans by the Iraqi government in the hopes of confronting terrorism.

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SANA, the state news agency, has covered the meeting and they reported that Assad focused on countries helping the insurgents both in Syria and Iraq. Assad was quoted saying that to defeat terrorism, countries should be pressured not to support the rebels financially.

Assad even noted that countries such as the U.S., Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar are just pretending that they want to stop terrorism. The truth is, these nations only want to support the rebels' efforts to oppose the Syrian government, Assad said.

Damascus criticized the said countries in the past and including Assad in the talks just proves that they are still opposing the support for the insurgents, the report said.

The meeting centered on the importance of strengthening the cooperation and coordination between Iraq and Syria to come up with plans to combat the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants that continue to threaten the region and the rest of the world.

The United States is still pushing through with its plans to bomb and launch airstrikes targeting ISIL-held territories in Syria.

U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel also unveiled a plan to improve the Iraqi forces by sending over 1,600 American military advisers to help the Iraqi troops. Among these advisers, there will be troops who will be involved in a direct fight against the ISIS militants. 

No other details were released regarding the military advisers, but Hagel assured that as of now, the U.S. will not send ground troops to Syria.

The U.S. will also be training 5,000 Syrian rebels to battle the ISIL militants, Hagel added. 

The U.S. has been very firm in saying they will not cooperate with Assad's government as the latter was accused of using chemical weapons against its own people a year ago. Obama and his administration continue to believe that Assad should be removed from his position.

There are now over 30 countries in the U.S.-led coalition that aims to dismantle ISIL.

TagsBashar Assad, Syrian President, Iraq, Damascus, Meeting, confront terrorism, Damascus, SANA