Syrian president Assad blames West for population exodus

Syrian president Bashar al-Assad has blamed Europe’s refugee crisis on Western support for “terrorists”, as people fleeing his country’s civil war stream towards the EU.

In his first public comments on the mass migration, Assad said Europe could expect more refugees.

Countries including the US, Turkey and Saudi Arabia want to see Assad gone from power and have supported the opposition to his rule during the four-year-old war, including some of the armed groups fighting him.