Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has cast doubt on the West’s integrity in fighting terrorism, saying the campaign is driven by fear, and not values.

Assad said the fact that Europe has now terrorists within its borders is because European states have failed to deal with terrorism “in a realistic base.”

“Why didn’t they fight terrorism from the very beginning, before ISIS (Daesh) appeared? You had al-Nusra, you had al-Qaeda, you had many terrorists. You didn’t fight,” he said in an interview with Dutch television station NPO2 on Thursday.

“Only this fight on terrorism started to appear when there was September 11 in the United States, the recent attacks in Paris, and in different European countries, but before that they didn’t say we are at war with terrorism,” he added.

The Syrian president said the battle against terrorism should be “a stable, sustainable principle,” Syria’s official SANA news agency reported.

“Many European officials have sold their values for the petrodollar, and they allowed the Wahhabi Saudi institutions to pay money and to bring this dark and this extremist ideology to Europe, and that’s why now you are exporting terrorists to us,” he said.

“We don’t export, actually, they came to Syria, and then they go back to Europe,” Assad added.

Daesh and other violent groups follow the Takfiri ideology, rooted in Wahhabism which dominates Saudi Arabia and is freely preached in the kingdom.

‘Terror support must end’

President Assad said the conflict in Syria could be over in “less than a year” if foreign support for terrorism ends.

“If the responsible countries take actions against the flood and the flowing of terrorists (into Syria) and the logistic support, I can guarantee that it will take less than one year,” he said.

Hundreds of Palestinians have staged a rally in the occupied West Bank, calling on the Tel Aviv regime to return the bodies of nearly two dozen protesters recently killed by Israeli forces.

Relatives of the slain Palestinians took to the streets along with a number of local officials in al-Khalil (Hebron) on Thursday to denounce Israel’s refusal to hand over the bodies.

The protesters carried photos of 21 Palestinians whose bodies are being held by Israeli authorities, demanding immediate and unconditional handover of the remains.

Lebanon’s resistance movement Hezbollah has dismissed Saudi Arabia’s recent move to patch up a coalition of countries allegedly to fight terrorism, saying the move is a US plan to put boots on the ground in the Middle East.

A Thursday statement by Hezbollah said the group “seriously doubts” the objectives behind the establishment of the Saudi-led coalition.

Saudi Arabia on Tuesday said it has patched together a coalition of 34 Muslim countries to fight against terrorism in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Egypt and Syria. The announcement, however, surprised some, with Pakistan, Lebanon and Indonesia saying the name of their countries was included without their knowledge.

Hezbollah further denounced Lebanese Prime Minister Tammam Salam for welcoming the formation of the coalition, saying Lebanon cannot be part of a dubious coalition.

“We were surprised by Saudi declaration on the membership of Lebanon in the coalition without the Lebanese being informed,” Hezbollah’s statement said.

Hezbollah has repeatedly criticized Saudi Arabia for its backing of terrorist groups in Syria over the past four years. The group has also lashed out at Saudis for their deadly air campaign against Yemen, which according to the estimates has left more than 7,500 people dead.