After the violent Paris attacks the world witnessed few weeks ago, Bashar al-Assad voiced his main problem with the French, as well as the West; the lack of “mutual respect” as stated in his latest interview with Czech paper Literarni Noviny .
This “mutual respect” voiced by Assad, is regarding the independence of the countries outside the Western ora. Assad conveys an implicit feeling of inferiority that creates a division between “them” and “us,” the “West” and the “Middle East,” and Syria in particular.
Apparently, the exclusion of Assad from the West since the Syrian uprising erupted in 2011, urged him to make the controversial statement that the Paris attacks brought European policies to account. Assad, indirectly is sending a veiled tease in an attempt to smooth the French President, François Hollande’s “emphatic no” to the Syrian government’s proposal to work with the U.S.-led coalition to combat ISIS.