Saudi Crown Prince said in an interview with TIME on Thursday that “Saudi Arabia believes American troops should stay for at least the mid-term, if not the long-term,” despite President Donald Trump’s declaration that American forces will be pulled from the war-torn country in the near future.
“If you take those troops out from east Syria, you will lose that checkpoint,” bin Salman said. “And this corridor could create a lot of things in the region.”
32-year-old Bin Salman said Assad is not likely to be ousted from power. He said he hopes that Assad will not become a “puppet” for Tehran.
“Bashar is staying,” he said. “But I believe that Bashar’s interests are not to let the Iranians do whatever they want they want to do.”
For more details, watch the full report in the video above