Damascus, October 29 (RHC)-- Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has once again harshly criticized some regional and Western states for their support of terrorist groups operating in the country. Assad made the remarks during a meeting with a French parliamentary delegation headed by Jean-Frederic Poisson, the leader of the Christian Democratic Party, in the Syrian capital Damascus on Wednesday.

“Several countries in the region and the West, including France, are continuing up until now to support terrorism by giving political cover to terrorist groups in Syria and the region,” the Syrian president said. Assad also noted that two main causes of the suffering of the Syrian people are terrorism and the damage it had inflicted upon the country’s infrastructure and the “unjust” economic sanctions that had been imposed on Syria.

The French legislators, for their part, stressed the need to unify efforts in confronting terrorism in the Middle Eastern country, saying they would spare no efforts to change France’s current policies regarding Syria in a manner that would alleviate the suffering of the Syrian people.

They also highlighted the need to adopt a different approach regarding Syria and its years-long crisis as the current policies have failed to put an end to the war.