Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said in an interview published Tuesday that United States efforts abroad have resulted in "chaos," and commented that Iran's role in the Middle East was changing the region, DPA reported.
"From our experiences over the past several decades, every theatre where the Americans have been has turned into chaos," al-Assad told al-Hayat daily, a London-based pan-Arab newspaper.
He cited the cases of Afghanistan and Somalia, as well as the US intervention in Beirut in the early 1980s.
His comments come despite what was being seen as a recent warming of ties between Damascus and Washington after years of tense relations.
Al-Assad was also quoted as saying that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's controversial visit to Lebanon earlier this month symbolised a tightening of relations between Tehran and parts of the Arab world.
"I am an Arab and when I saw President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Lebanon and in the south, I felt as if this is the new Middle East, one that is contrary to the Middle East proposed by (former US secretary of state) Condoleeza Rice," said al-Assad.
But he stressed his own country's continued role in Lebanon, saying Syria maintains closer ties to Beirut than Iran.