Local Editor

Syrian President Bashar Assad said on Tuesday that Europe is "not dealing with the cause" of the current refugee crisis, adding that all the West now is crying for the refugees with one eye and aiming at them with a machinegun with the second one.

"Actually those refugees left Syria because of the terrorism, mainly because of the terrorists and because of the killing, and second because of the results of terrorism. When you have terrorism, and you have the destruction of the infrastructure, you won’t have the basic needs of living, so many people leave because of the terrorism and because they want to earn their living somewhere in this world," he said.

“It’s not about that Europe didn’t accept them or embrace them as refugees, it’s about not dealing with the cause. If you are worried about them, stop supporting terrorists," Assad said during an interview with Russian media outlets.

"If we ask any Syrian today about what they want, the first thing they would say - 'We want security and safety for every person and every family'," the Syrian President stated, noting that political forces, whether inside or outside the government, “should unite around what the Syrian people want."

Addressing the reforms that the opposition groups are calling on the government to implement, Assad said that terrorism is an obstacle for every step forward.

"If you want to implement anything real, it’s impossible to do anything while you have people being killed, bloodletting hasn’t stopped, people feel insecure," he said.

Moreover, Assad said that the dialogue in Syria should be continued "in order to reach the consensus," which cannot be implemented "unless we defeat the terrorism in Syria."

He also went on to talk about the "Syrian fabric" that includes people of many ethnicities and sects, including the Kurds.

"They are not foreigners," the Syrian president said, highlighting that without such groups of people who have been living in the region for centuries "there wouldn’t have been a homogeneous Syria."

"I would like to take this opportunity to call on all forces to unite against terrorism, because it is the way to achieve the political objectives which we, as Syrians, want through dialogue and political action," Bashar Assad said.