Are Some Refugees Terrorists? Syrian President Bashar Assad Says 'Definitely'

Syrian President Bashar Assad endorsed President Donald Trump's claim that some terrorists are hidden among refugees entering the U.S. in an exclusive interview with Yahoo News Friday. Assad confirmed in the interview that some refugees are "definitely" terrorists.

“You can find it on the Net,” Assad said. “Those terrorists in Syria, holding the machine gun or killing people, they [appear as] peaceful refugees in Europe or in the West."

With more than four million Syrian refugees, Assad did not specify how many of those refugees were terrorists, but said, "you don't need a significant number to commit atrocities," and added that it took fewer than 20 terrorists to commit the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

"So it's not about the number, it's about the quality, it's about the intentions," he said.

While Trump's recent executive order has temporarily halted entries from seven Muslim-majority countries, the order has banned Syrian refugees indefinitely until "sufficient changes" have been made to screening operations. "I hereby proclaim that the entry of nationals of Syria as refugees is detrimental to the interests of the United States," Trump's order signed last month read.

Assad has actively participated in discharging refugees to other countries amid a civil war that has pitted the Syrian military against Islamic State militants and rebel groups. Thousands of civilians in entire cities have been killed by the Assad regime's chemical weapons and barrel bombs, especially in Aleppo in the northwest part of the country, where ISIS fighters have set up a base. But in the Yahoo exclusive, Assad explained that his priority for the future of Syria's refugees was to "bring those citizens to their country, not to help them immigrate."

Trump said he would create safe zones in Syria for victims of war to seek protection but has provided few details about how he would do that. Assad has deemed the proposal "not realistic." Other U.S. politicians and officials have supported the creation of safe zones, including Trump's Democratic presidential rival, Hillary Clinton. However, skeptics fear such a policy would further drag the U.S. military into Syria's civil war.

"Safe zones for the Syrians could only happen when you have stability and security, where you don't have terrorists, where you don't have flow and support of those terrorists by the neighboring countries or by Western countries," Assad concluded.