Assad blames France as Arab world condemns Paris attacks
BEIRUT: Syrian President Bashar al-Assad reacted Saturday to the deadly attacks in Paris, taking France to task and calling on it to change policies that he says have contributed to the “spread of terrorism”.
Across the Middle East, most Arab governments expressed shock and anger at the gun and bomb assault that left at least 128 people dead.
The Islamic State group, a jihadist organisation that has declared a self- styled “caliphate” across parts of Iraq and Syria, said it carried out the attacks.
In a meeting with a delegation of French lawmakers in Damascus the day after the attack, Assad said France’s “mistaken policies... have contributed to the spread of terrorism”.
“France has got to know what we live with in Syria.”
He said French President Francois Hollande “should change his policy.”
“The question that is being asked throughout France today is, was France’s policy over the past five years the right one? The answer is no.”
France has been a leading supporter of the Syrian opposition since soon after protests against Assad’s rule broke out in 2011.
Although Assad has hosted numerous right-wing parliamentary delegations from France, Paris remains staunchly opposed to his rule in Syria.
Hollande recently insisted that Assad “cannot be part of the solution” to Syria’s brutal war.
France is also part of a US-led coalition conducting an air war against IS in both Syria and Iraq.
It has carried out air strikes in Iraq for more than a year and extended them to Syria in September.
“We warned against what would happen in Europe for the past three years,” Assad said on Saturday.
“We said, don’t take what is happening in Syria lightly. Unfortunately, European officials did not listen,” he said, in comments to the delegation broadcast by France’s Europe 1 radio. — AFP