Western disinformation against Damascus lacks credibility: Syrian President Bashar al-Assad

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad (3rd R) speaks with Deputy Chairman of the European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs Javier Couso (5th L) in the capital Damascus, on March 12, 2017. (Photo by SANA)

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad says the era of spreading disinformation by most of the Western media against the Syrian government has passed and their credibility is questioned even by the people in the West.

The Syrian leader made the remarks in a meeting with a European parliamentary delegation headed by Deputy Chairman of the European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs Javier Couso on Sunday, adding that frequent visits to Damascus by European parliamentarians in the past months are a clear sign that they have come to witness the reality and relay to their respective people a true image of what is happening in Syria.  

Elsewhere in his remarks, President Assad reiterated that the wrong policies adopted and pursued by several European countries toward the region in general and Damascus in particular had led to the spread of terrorism and the flow of large numbers of refugees and asylum seekers to those European countries.

The flawed policies include supporting extremism and terrorism and imposing economic sanctions on the Syrian people, he added.

The members of the delegation, which represented several European nations and parties, for their part, asserted that their visit was aimed at rectifying the erroneous views both on the political and popular levels toward what is actually going on in Syria.

They also confirmed that they would keep on working toward restoring diplomatic ties between the European Union member states and Syria, and toward ending the sanctions imposed on the Arab country.

The two sides also discussed the latest developments in Syria, the EU policies on the foreign-backed terrorists targeting the Syrian people, and the prospects of finding effective and conclusive solutions for ending the six-year-long war in the Arab country.

Syrian children play during a sandstorm in the once militant-held Karm al-Jabal neighborhood in the northwestern city of Aleppo, on March 10, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem also received the delegation, affirming to them that Damascus supports all possible ways to find a political resolution to the crisis by encouraging intra-Syrian negotiations without any foreign interference.   

Since 2011, Syria has been hit by militancy it blames on some Western states and their regional allies.

UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura estimates that more than 400,000 people have been killed in the Syrian crisis. The UN has stopped its official casualty count in Syria, citing its inability to verify the figures it receives from various sources.