Britain seeks to arm Syrian terrorists, President Assad says
Accusation comes as UN chief offers to hold peace talks between regime and rebels
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has accused Britain of wanting to arm terrorists in his country as the UN chief and his Syria envoy offer to broker peace talks between the regime and rebel leaders.
Britain has been pushing to lift a ban on the sale of arms to Syria's rebels, but at a meeting last month European Union foreign ministers ruled that only "non-lethal" aid and "technical assistance" could be given to the opposition.
"How can we expect them to make the violence less while they want to send military supplies to the terrorists and don't try to ease the dialogue between the Syrians?" Assad said in a rare interview with a British newspaper.
"Britain has played a famously unconstructive role in different issues for decades, some say for centuries - I'm telling you the perception in our region," he told The Sunday Times.
"The problem with this government is that their shallow and immature rhetoric only highlights this tradition of a bullying hegemony."
His comments came as UN chief Ban Ki-moon and his Syria envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said they were prepared to broker peace talks between the Assad regime and the opposition.