Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has blamed Europe’s refugee crisis on Western support for “terrorists”, as people fleeing his country’s civil war stream towards the European Union.
In his first public comments on the mass migration, broadcast yesterday, Assad said Europe could expect more refugees.
Countries including the United States, Turkey and Saudi Arabia want to see Assad gone from power and have supported the opposition to his rule during the four-year-old war, including some of the armed groups fighting him.
Assad said Turkish support had been crucial to the growth of two of the biggest insurgent groups in Syria, Islamic State and the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, and aerial bombing by a US-led coalition had failed to stop IS. Turkey denies the accusation.
The Syrian president dismissed Western suggestions that his government’s actions in the war had fuelled the spread of such groups.
As long as they follow this propaganda, they will have more refugees
“As long as they follow this propaganda, they will have more refugees,” Assad said in an interview with Russian media. “If you are worried about them, stop supporting terrorists.”
The Syrian government de-scribes all the armed groups fighting it as terrorists. The insurgents in Syria range from the hardline Islamist IS to nationalists viewed as moderate by the West.
Assad has been buoyed in recent weeks by signs of increased military support from his ally Russia. In his comments he made no mention of reports of Russian military activity in Syria.
The White House said on Tuesday it wanted to see Russia engage constructively with the international coalition fighting Islamic State, rather than build up its own military presence.
Moscow says the Syrian government should be part of a broad coalition to fight Islamic State.
Assad said there was no coordination between his government and the United States, even indirectly, apparently backing away from comments earlier this year suggesting there had been some contact. “There’s not a single coordination or contact between the Syrian government and the United States government or between the Syrian army and the US army... Not even any third party including the Iraqis.”
He played down proposals for a peace initiative that Assad ally Iran has said it presented to Syrian officials. “There is currently no Iranian initiative, but rather there are ideas, or principles, for an Iranian initiative which are based principally on the subject of Syria’s sovereignty... and are based on fighting terrorism,” Assad said.
‘I will only quit if my people tell me to’
Syrian President Bashar al- Assad said in an interview with Russian media he would only quit power if the Syrian people wanted him to and not under pressure from the West, a transcript of the interview published on Wednesday showed.
“As for the president, he comes to power with the people’s assent through elections, and if he leaves, he leaves if the people demand it, not because of the judgment of the United States, the UN Security Council, the Geneva Conference or the Geneva Communique,” said Assad.
“If the people want him to stay the president stays. In the opposite case, he should swiftly step down.”
The help of Iran, which had supplied military technology, had been crucial in fighting against terrorism in Syria, he said. But Tehran had not sent military units to Damascus, he added.
The US-led coalition had not been able to prevent the spread of Islamic State militants so far, he noted.