Assad says US hampering return of Syrian refugees
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has blamed the United States for hampering the return of refugees to Syria.
"Today we continue working persistently for the return of every refugee who wants to return and participate in the restoration of the homeland," Assad said in a speech delivered via video at the opening of the two-day International Conference on the Return of Refugees in Damascus on Wednesday.
"But there are big obstacles,” he added, citing the US sanctions and the blockades imposed by Washington and its allies, which he said are hindering the rebuilding of Syria.
Assad further said the return is not only humanitarian but a “national issue.”
"They refuse to be a number in politically-motivated statistics or a pawn in the hands of the regimes that support terrorism against their homeland," he explained.
The Syrian leader noted that some host countries are exploiting the refugees to benefit from international aid for them.
He added that millions of refugees were being forced to stay in some host countries by "pressure or intimidation" or by financial enticements.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Assad thanked Russia, which co-organized the conference, for the "tremendous effort" it made to support it, despite the West's attempts to "disrupt the forum".
Last month, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem denounced the Western role in setting conditions and fabricating flimsy pretexts to halt the return of Syrian refugees to their homeland, slamming the West for politicizing the purely humanitarian issue and its use as a card for advancing their political agendas.
Since 2011, some 5.6 million Syrians have been forced to flee abroad as refugees, mostly to the neighboring countries of Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and Iraq.
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