Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders says he opposes implementing a unilateral US no-fly zone in Syria and has advised American officials to stop meddling in the Arab country because it is worsening the situation there. 

“I oppose, at this point, a unilateral American no-fly zone in Syria, which could get us more deeply involved in that horrible civil war and lead to a never-ending US entanglement in the region,” Sanders said in a statement to The Washington Post on Saturday.

Sanders argued that US meddling in the Syrian conflict could worsen the crisis that has already taken tens of thousands of lives.

“We must be very careful about not making a complex and dangerous situation in Syria even worse,” he said.

“I support President Obama’s efforts to combat ISIS (Daesh, ISIL) in Syria while at the same time supporting those in that country trying to remove” the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, he added.

Clinton backs no-fly zone

Sanders’s announcement has put him in line with President Barack Obama and at odds with Hillary Clinton, his main rival for the Democratic presidential nomination.

In a television interview on Thursday, Clinton, who served as Obama’s secretary of state, publicly broke with the Obama administration and advocated additional air power to protect civilians.

“I personally would be advocating now for a no-fly zone and humanitarian corridors to try to stop the carnage on the ground and from the air,” Clinton said.

Syria has been gripped by deadly violence since March 2011. The United States and its regional allies - especially Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey - have been supporting the militants operating inside Syria since the beginning of the crisis.

Russia has been beefing up its military presence in Syria, deploying warplanes, tanks and personnel to an airfield in the western port city of Latakia.

Russia launched its air campaign against Daesh (ISIL) terrorists in Syria on Wednesday. The airstrikes began hours after a warning that the US must take its warplanes out of Syria.

US-led terrorist invasion on Syria 

In an interview with Press TV on Thursday, American journalist Don DeBar said Russia has launched airstrikes against ISIL terrorists at the request of the Syrian government to defend the country from a US-led invasion.

“Russia is acting in coordination with the Syrian government to defend Syria from an invasion. This is an invasion, this is not a rebellion. They are not Syrians that are doing this fighting,” DeBar said.

“They [American officials] have termed their invasion, a rebellion, a civil war," he stated.

“These are the people from other countries that are on tour, they were in Libya, they have been elsewhere in North Africa and the Middle East, and they will be going somewhere else once they are finished in Syria too,” he stated. “But what Russia is doing is coordinating with Syria to rid Syria of terrorists."