Syrian President Bashar Assad said that settlement of the Syrian crisis is “completely possible”.

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DAMASCUS (Sputnik)The settlement of the Syrian crisis is “completely possible,” Syrian President Bashar Assad told Russian journalists in an interview Friday.

“The settlement of the Syrian crisis is completely possible if the Syrians sit down and start dialogue, then we’ll reach results,” Assad said.

Assad said that foreign states meddling in the internal affairs of the intra-Syrian conflict will not lead to an end to the country’s crisis.

“I will reiterate again that for the success of intra-Syrian dialogue, it’s necessary to neutralize foreign meddling and halt the delivery of weapons from Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and a number of European governments to terrorists,” Assad said.

Assad refuted claims by many Western leaders that if peace in the region is to be reached, then it needs to be done without the current president’s participation.

“If the West doesn’t like some sort of government, it tries to change the government or the president. When they take on that type of logic, they don’t take into consideration the opinion of the people. For them it’s just simple: We don’t like the president, we’ll change him,” Assad said.

“Today, the people don’t agree that their future, their fate, or who will govern them should be determined from abroad,” he said.

Syria's anti-government uprising in the wake of the 2011 Arab Spring has spiraled into a civil war that has claimed the lives of some 220,000 people and displaced millions, according to UN estimates.

The Syrian army has been fighting against several opposition and rebel groups, including Islamic State (IS) extremists and Nusra Front.

The United States, which heads an international anti-IS coalition, is currently training some 15,000 Syrian opposition militants in Turkey, Jordan and Saudi Arabia as a part of its campaign against the IS and forces loyal to President Assad.

On Thursday, British Defense Minister Michael Fallon said the United Kingdom will also train "moderate opposition forces" in Syria.