In an exclusive interview with Athens daily Kathimerini, Assad said there was no reason to meet face-to-face with Trump, since the US president "says something today, and does the opposite tomorrow," and is likely not even  in control of policy decisions.

"[W]e don't think the president of that regime is in control," Assad told the paper, referring to Trump. "We all believe that the deep state, the real state, is in control, or is in control of every president, and that is nothing new. It has always been so in the United States, at least during the last 40 years, at least since Nixon, maybe before, but it's becoming starker and starker, and the starkest case is Trump."