(AP) -- U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said U.S. troops would stay in Syria for the foreseeable future to defeat [extremists], and said the U.S. would not fund the reconstruction of any part of Syria where President Bashar Assad is in power.

The Foreign Ministry, in remarks carried on Syria's state news agency SANA, said Thursday that America's military presence is "illegal."

It said Syria "does not need a single dollar from the U.S. for reconstruction because this dollar is stained with the blood of the Syrians."

(Photo: Syria Foreign and Expatriates Ministry, SANA)