Her words come as the West shows signs of softening its stance towards the leader.
European Union leaders called for broad international talks to end the Syrian civil war that’s created millions of refugees and left the bloc with a migrant crisis, with some mentioning the need to involve Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in those discussions.
“We will have to talk with many actors,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said early Thursday after a summit of the 28-nation bloc in Brussels. “Assad will be part of that, but also others like the United States and Russia as well as important regional partners like Iran or Saudi Arabia,” Bloomberg reported.
EU leaders met in Brussels a day after their interior ministers reached agreement on how to share out some of the thousands of Syrian refugees arriving in Europe, turning their attention to how to prevent several million others still camped out in Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey from joining the exodus. The heads of government agreed on an aid package of 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) for the refugee camps in the region, pledged to better protect the EU’s external borders, and spoke of the urgent need for a political settlement in Syria after more than four years of conflict.
Syrian President Bashar Assad said recently in an interview that Europe is “not dealing with the cause” of the current refugee crisis, adding, "If you are worried about them, stop supporting terrorists."
Syria has been gripped by deadly violence since 2011 with reports saying more than 240,000 people having been killed in the conflict.
Western countries including France, Britain and the US together with their allies in the Middle East, most notably Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia have been supporting the terrorist groups at war with Syrian government by providing logistic, political and military assistance.