President Bashar al-Assad has rejected the creation of safe zones for refugees and displaced people in Syria, an idea supported by U.S. President Donald Trump.
He signalled he would welcome co-operation with Washington in the fight against Islamic State, however, as long as the United States took a "clear political position" on Syrian sovereignty and unity.
Assad has cautiously welcomed the new US administration's focus on fighting the jihadists, in which Trump has held out the possibility of cooperation with Damascus ally Russia.
The Syrian government has rejected the creation of safe zones, favoured by rebel backers including Qatar, which could ratchet up US military involvement in Syria.
"It's not a realistic idea at all," Assad said, according to a transcript from an interview with Yahoo News released on Friday.
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"This is where you can have natural safe zones, which is our country. They don't need safe zones at all."
"It's much more viable, much more practical and less costly to have stability than to create safe zones."
Assad said safe zones would be at risk of attack from armed groups.
