Syria urges intelligence sharing in anti-terror war

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad urged states fighting terrorism to share intelligence, saying the policies of European governments were responsible for lethal attacks by Islamist gunmen in France last week.

"There should be ... an exchange of information between the countries concerned with fighting terrorism," Assad said in excerpts of an interview with a Czech monthly magazine published by state media on Wednesday.

Assad has been shunned by Western governments since the Syrian crisis erupted in 2011. His government accuses both Arab and Western states of backing armed Syrian opposition factions viewed by Damascus as terrorist groups.

"We told the West: 'You cannot support terrorism and provide a political umbrella for it because that will reflect on your countries and nations,'" Assad said in the interview the magazine, Literarni Noviny Newspaper.