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Assad believes EU policy in Syria triggered wave of terrorism

Europe, which imposed unfair sanctions on Damascus, is now reaping the fruits of its connivance at terrorists in Syria, Assad said

BEIRUT, March 12. /TASS/. A wave of terror attacks in the West stems from the erroneous policy of a number of European countries towards Syria and the Middle East in general, Syrian President Bashar Assad said on Sunday at a meeting with a visiting European Parliament delegation led by Javier Couso, a deputy chairman of the foreign affairs committee.

Europe, which imposed unfair sanctions on Damascus, is now reaping the fruits of its connivance at terrorists in Syria, Assad said, adding that the current migration crisis in Europe was rooted in this erroneous policy.

At the same time, the Syrian leader noted that visits to Damascus by European lawmakers, which have become more frequent in the recent time, could be seen as a sign of awakening in the West which had been misled by the mass media misinformation about developments in Syria. "They want to see Syria’s realities with their own eye and convey the true picture to their nations," he stressed.

Couso, according to SANA news agency, spoke in favor of restoring diplomatic relations between Syria and the European Union that were severed in 2011. He pledged to take effort to have the anti-Syrian sanctions lifted.

Earlier, Couso condemned the terrorist attacks in Damascus that claimed the lives of more than 70 people.

On Saturday, suicide bombers blew themselves up in a crowd of Shia pilgrims at Bab al-Saghir cemetery, a Shia Muslin site of worship, sandwiched between Bab Musalla and Bab al-Jabiya neighborhoods south of the Umayyad Mosque, a Damascus’ landmark site. According to the latest reports, as many as 74 people, most of them Iraqi pilgrims, were killed. More than 100 were wounded.