Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has criticised Britain’s decision to launch airstrikes against Islamic State militants in Syria.

Assad said in his interview with the Sunday Times that the UK will not be able to defeat the ISIS alone and it needed cooperation with forces on the ground. He exemplified his view, saying that the only airstrikes that worked on the IS militants was that of Russia, which worked in cooperation with Syrian government forces. The Syrian forces have helped Russia capture several IS regions since the nation began its air campaign on Sep. 30.

“They are going to fail again,” the president said even before British MPs voted for the notion. “You cannot cut out part of the cancer. You have to extract it. This kind of operation is like cutting out part of the cancer. That will make it spread in the body faster.”

British MPs voted in favour of the Operation Inherent Resolve on Wednesday and pledged to fight the ISIS. On Thursday, the Royal Air Force hit the oil fields controlled and managed by the militants that used to fund the ISIL attacks on the West.

Assad mocked British Prime Minister David Cameron’s strategy and said that conducting airstrikes would not affect the ISIS but will worsen the global situation. He also called the Middle East policy initiated by Cameron a “classical farce.” He criticised Cameron’s claim that there were 70,000 Syrian rebels on the ground.

“Let me be frank and blunt about this. This is a new episode in a long series of David Cameron’s classical farce, to be very frank. This is not acceptable. Where are they? Where are the 70,000 moderates that he is talking about?” the president questioned.

“That is what they always talk about: moderate groups in Syria. This is a farce based on offering the public factoids instead of facts,” he added.

Contact the writer at feedback@ibtimes.com.au, or let us know what you think below.