Fighting terrorists starts with pressure on sponsors: Assad

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad says any campaign against “terrorism” must begin by pressuring those who back terrorist groups in Syria and Iraq.

“The battle against terrorism starts with pressure on the countries that support and finance terrorist groups in Syria and Iraq and pretend that they want to fight against terrorism,” Assad was quoted by Syria’s official SANA news agency as saying on Tuesday.

The Syrian president made the remarks at a meeting with Iraq’s National Security advisor Falah al-Fayadh in the capitals Damascus.

Fayadh also updated President Assad of the country’s fight against the ISIL Takfiri terrorists in the neighboring country.

The Takfiri terrorists currently control parts of eastern Syria and Iraq’s northern and western regions.

Syria has been gripped by deadly violence since 2011 with ISIL Takfiri terrorists currently controlling parts of it mostly in the east.

The Western powers and their regional allies — especially Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey — are reportedly supporting the militants operating inside Syria.

More than 191,000 people have been killed in over three years of fighting in the war-ravaged country, says the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), calling the figure a probable “underestimate of the real total number of people killed.”