Saudi King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz al-Saud on Wednesday accused Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad of having aided the rise of the terrorist group ISIS (Daesh or ISIL) and called for a political settlement with moderate forces to end the war there, the French news agency Agence France Presse reported.
The solution would be to form “a transitional government made up of moderate opposition forces, ensuring the unity of Syrians and the departure of foreign forces and terrorist organizations,” the king said in an annual speech to the consultative Shura Council, according to the AFP.
These organizations “could not have found fertile ground in Syria, had it not been for the Syrian regime’s policies, which have exterminated hundreds of thousands … and displaced millions” of people, said the monarch.
More than 250,000 people have been killed in Syria since the conflict broke out in March 2011.
The kingdom, a key-backer of Syrian opposition groups, has repeatedly insisted on Assad’s departure.