Assad says Britain wants to arm terrorists Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has accused the British government of wanting to arm "terrorists." SYRIAN President Bashar al-Assad has accused the British government of wanting to arm "terrorists" in his country, in a rare interview with a UK newspaper. How can we expect them to make the violence less while they want to send military supplies to the terrorists and don't try to ease the dialogue between the Syrians? Assad told The Sunday Times in a video interview. Britain has been pushing for the lifting of a European arms embargo on supplying weapons to the Syrian rebels. However, at a meeting last month EU foreign ministers decided not to lift the ban. Instead they are allowing only "non-lethal" aid and "technical assistance" to flow to Syria's opposition. Assad also said Britain had "played a famously unconstructive role in different issues for decades, some say for centuries" and that was the perception in the region. "The problem with this government is that their shallow and immature rhetoric only highlights this tradition of a bullying hegemony," he said.