President Bashar al-Assad has said that Western countries are starting to shift their position on the conflict in Syria because of the danger posed to them by the rebel groups they had previously backed.
Leaders of the Group of Seven industrialised nations have said they will tighten their defences against the risk of attacks by fighters returning from Syria.
"The United States and the West have started to send signs of change. Terrorism is now on their soil," said Assad, according to remarks published in Al-Akhbar, a Lebanese newspaper sympathetic to the regime in Damascus.
Assad said "current and former US officials are trying to get in touch with us, but they do not dare to because of the powerful lobbies that are pressuring them".
Syria's war began as a peaceful movement demanding political change more than three years ago, but later morphed into an armed rebellion attracting foreign fighters after the Assad regime unleashed a massive crackdown against dissent.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/06/assad-says-west-shifting-position-syria-20146128166985488.html