Assad says West will pay for supporting al Qaeda in Syria

BEIRUT (Reuters) - President Bashar al-Assad said Western nations will suffer the consequences for what he said was their support for al Qaeda militants in Syria's civil war.

"The West has paid heavily for funding al Qaeda in its early stages in Afghanistan. Today it is supporting it in Syria, Libya and other places, and will pay a heavy price later in the heart of Europe and the United States," he told Syrian television channel al-Ikhbariya, according to extracts published on the Syrian presidency's Facebook page on Wednesday.