US President Barack Obama rejected the idea that ‘moderate opposition’ could have overthrown the Syrian government with US arms, calling the notion a “fantasy.”

US President Barack Obama  rejected the idea that ‘moderate opposition’ could have overthrown the Syrian government with US arms, calling the notion a “fantasy.”

In an interview with CBS News, Obama also warned that the security vacuum in the Middle East has allowed Takfiri group ISIL to advance through regions of Iraq and Syria.

"I think this notion that somehow there was this ready-made moderate Syrian force that was able to defeat [Syrian President Bashar] Assad is simply not true, and, you know, we have spent a lot of time trying to work with a moderate opposition in Syria," the US president said in the interview taped Friday.

Obama went on to add that the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and Levant (ISIL), as well as several other organizations, pose a “medium and long-term threat” to the US. He called the threat posed by these groups a “global challenge” that the US will have to address with its allies.