Syria's Assad Blames Europe for Refugee Crisis

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad blamed European nations for the refugee crisis on the continent's shores, saying they had "supported terrorists" in Syria, in an interview with Russian media published on Tuesday.

Hundreds of thousands of people have made the journey to Europe this year to flee conditions of war and torture in North Africa and the Middle East, with many seeking to escape the four-year-long Syrian civil war. Western leaders have accused Assad of being responsible for the crisis, with British Prime Minister David Cameron saying last week in parliament that millions have fled Syria "because Assad has butchered his own people."

However, the Syrian leader accused the West of causing the crisis through its support of a number of moderate rebel groups that he is currently fighting in the country.

"It's not about that Europe didn't accept them or embrace them as refugees, it's about not dealing with the cause," he said in an interview with Russian state broadcaster Russia Today. "If you are worried about them, stop supporting terrorists. That's what we think regarding the crisis. This is the core of the whole issue of refugees."

"If we ask any Syrian today about what they want, the first thing they would say—'We want security and safety for every person and every family'," he added.

The Syrian civil war has killed more than 220,000 people, internally displaced 7.6 million people in the country and led to more than 4 million people fleeing the country altogether, since the onset of the conflict in March 2011 in the midst of the Arab Spring revolutions.

Assad said that the world should feel "sad" about the thousands who have been killed in the Syrian conflict and not those fleeing to reach Europe, such as Aylan Kurdi, who was pictured lying lifeless on a Turkish beach. Assad's force have been accused of killing thousands in its bombardments of rebel-held areas of cities such as Homs, Aleppo and Douma with barrel bombs.

"Can you feel sad for a child's death in the sea and not for thousands of children who have been killed by the terrorists in Syria?" Assad said, in reference to the image of Kurdi. "And also for men, women, and the elderly? These European double standards are no longer acceptable."

Despite reports of the Assad regime's conduct in the civil war, Russian President Vladimir Putin has remained a staunch ally of the Alawite leader. The Russian leader confirmed on Tuesday that Moscow would continue to supply military hardware to Assad's regime as U.S. officials accused the country of a military buildup in western Syria. Hundreds of Russian troops are also believed to be present in the country.

Putin said that the refugee crisis would be "even bigger" if Russia had not supported Assad's regime and called on other countries to offer "military-technical assistance" to the regime that has suffered a number of key losses to rebel groups including the Al-Qaeda-linked Nusra Front and the Islamic State (ISIS).

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to meet with Putin next week in Moscow, his first visit to the country since November 2013, to warn the president that Russia's offer of weapons and military hardware to Damascus is a threat to Israel's security as it may find its way into the hands of Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, a key ally of Assad.