Syrian President Bashar Assad blamed last week's terrorist attacks in Paris on Western politicians who were "short-sighted and narrow minded," though he said he sympathized with the victims' families, the International Business Times reported.
"We are against killing innocent people anywhere in the world ... this is our principle," Assad said, according to Syria's state-run news agency, SANA. "At the same time, we want to remind many people in the West that we have been talking about these repercussions since the beginning of the crisis in Syria. We have been saying, you shouldn't support terrorism and provide it with a political umbrella, because this will reflect on your countries and your people. They didn't listen to us."
Assad continued, saying that Western politicians are "short-sighted and narrow-minded."
What happened in France "proved that what we said was true," Assad said.
Assad went on to say that the problem should not be dealt with in the same way that the West addressed terrorism in Afghanistan following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
"A group of Congressmen visited Damascus at that time and they were talking about invading Afghanistan in revenge for what happened in New York earlier," Assad said. "I said this is not how you should do it, because fighting terrorism is similar to treating cancer. You do not treat cancer by cutting it, but by extracting it. What happened in Afghanistan is that they cut the cancer, and the result was that it spread much faster. That's why, as I said, we should focus on good policies, on the economy, and on culture and education."
Assad has been especially critical of the West since the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011 and has accused the U.S. and others of inciting rebellion within the country by providing training and weapons to rebel groups attempting to overthrow his government.
