Assad: Syria sympathizes with families of Paris victims
Syrian president says attacks in France show that West should back his regime against rebel ‘terrorists’
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DAMASCUS, Syria — President Bashar Assad said Syria is against the killing of civilians anywhere in the world and sympathizes with the families of victims of last week’s terrorist attack in France.
In an interview with Czech publication Literarni Noviny, he also called on Western politicians to reconsider their backing of Syrian rebels and opposition.
He said Western politicians were “short-sighted” and France’s attacks proved that “what we said was true.”
Excerpts of the interview were published by Syria’s state media Wednesday.
Assad’s government has cast the March 2011 uprising against his family’s four-decade rule as a foreign plot furthered by Islamic extremists. It views all the rebels as “terrorists.”
The uprising prompted a brutal response by the government, leading to a full-blown civil war that has claimed 200,000 lives.
Last Wednesday’s attacks by jihadists in France killed 17 people.
Islamic extremist brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi attacked the offices of Charlie Hebdo magazine on January 7, killing 10 employees and two policemen. Amedy Coulibaly, who killed a policewoman and then four Jewish shoppers in separate incidents over the following two days, was a self-proclaimed member of the Islamic Jihad group.
All three gunmen were eventually killed by police.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
The Times of Israel Community.