President receives delegation of UK lawmakers, academics and religious figures as part of effort to combat "misrepresentations" of Syria in Western media

President Bashar al-Assad highlighted the importance of visits by foreign delegations in combatting the false image of Syria as portrayed by the Western media.

Assad’s remarks came during a meeting with the visiting British delegation which included members of the House of Commons and the House of Lords, as well as religious and academic figures.

The president elaborated that such visits would contribute to clarifying the image of Syria and laying bare the misleading practices of some Western media outlets against the people of their countries.

President Assad affirmed that the gravest danger facing the world now is that of the extremist mentality pervading the societies inside the region and beyond.

This mentality, Assad said, is the underpinning of terrorism that has started recently to strike in many areas inside Europe and other Western countries.

Assad stressed that in order to eliminate terrorism, one not only needs to fight it on the ground, but also confront the ideology underlying it, which knows no borders.

This article was edited by The Syrian Observer. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.