Local Editor

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said that terrorism will strike back against the West and other countries that supported attacks in Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East, in a meeting in the Syrian capital of Damascus on Wednesday.

During a meeting with Foreign Minister of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea Ri Su Yong visiting Damascus on Wednesday, al-Assad warned the supporters of militant groups active in Syria and other regional countries. 

"The West and countries that support extremism and terrorism in Syria and the region ... must realize that this growing threat will strike the whole world, especially the countries that support terrorism and that allowed it to grow," Al-Assad stated. 

He stressed that the west and other countries that support extremism and terrorism in Syria and in the region should learn from the example of past experiences and realize that the threats resulting from the growth of terrorism will cross the region's countries and reach the entire world, particularly the states that harbor and support it.

Al-Assad has previously blamed the West, Turkey and Gulf countries who back insurgents seeking the overthrow of the Syrian government for violence in Syria.

Moreover, Al-Assad said that the west is employing various methods in an attempt to weaken and divide countries that don't submit to its will and subjugate them, noting that in the past, the west used hireling governments to implement its plans, and today terrorist groups are filling this role.
He added though that the rallying of people to protect their homeland and independence should be sufficient to thwart them.

For his part, Yong asserted that his country's government and people stand alongside Syria in confronting the conspiracy targeting it and its people.

He also asserted that the great achievements made by the Syrian people in their fight against terrorism, their success in holding the presidential elections, and the massive turnout in them despite some foreign forces and sides attempting fervently to hinder it, have delivered a severe blow to the plots of these forces which seek to undermine Syria's unity and its important role on the regional arena.

He said that many nations around the world stand alongside the Syrian people and support their steadfastness in the face of the multi-faceted war they are confronting, but in many cases, they do not express this openly due to the pressure being exerted by the forces opposing Syria, particularly the United States.

Furthermore, Al-Assad and the North Korean delegation discussed "ways to expand cooperation in the economic sector and in reconstruction" in Syria.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team