Syria’s President Bashar Assad insists he had no intention of leaving the country during the height of the civil war. Speaking exclusively to Sky News Arabia, Assad blamed the war on outside powers and said he would have left the country if his people had called for it. Half of Syria’s 23 million residents were displaced by the war, with five million of them leaving the country. Assad and his regime are considered pariah by the West but are slowing being brought into the fold by other countries in the Middle East.
President Assad: ‘Fleeing Syria was never on the cards’
