Bashar al-Assad, President of Syria, said that Western nations are largely responsible for the migrant crisis in Europe.
"This is the core of the whole issue of refugees," he said, according to CNN. "If you are worried about them, stop supporting terrorists."
He was giving an interview in the Russian media when he made his comments. He referred to the large influx of immigrants moving into Europe, many of which are fleeing the civil war and terrorism in Syria and other Middle Eastern countries. More than 220,000 people have been killed in these conflicts in recent years, CNN reported.
"Europe is responsible because it supported terrorism," al-Assad said.
This week, Australia and France both said they could support U.S. air forces fighting the Islamic State, ISIS, in Syria, according to Yahoo! News. "The West is crying for them, and the West is supporting terrorists since the beginning of the crisis when it said that this was a peaceful uprising," al-Assad said.
More than half of the 400,000 refugees who have been pouring into Europe are Syrian, according to The Wall Street Journal. The Syrian civil war has been fraught with confusion. Several western countries, including the U.S, initially supported the opposition to the Assad regime, the Free Syrian Army. Later, many of these fighters began to join terrorist groups.
