Syrian President Bashar Assad appeared to take a page right out of President Donald Trump’s book when he asserted that some refugees from his own country are “definitely” terrorists.
He knows this, he said in an interview with Yahoo News chief investigative correspondent Michael Isikoff, because, “You can find it on the [internet].”
Trump signed an executive order during his first week in office to indefinitely ban the entry of all Syrians, including refugees, into the United States to protect the country from “radical Islamic terrorism.”
Assad’s justification seemingly fell in line with Trump’s reasoning, even though he wouldn’t overtly comment on Trump’s ban.
“Those terrorists in Syria holding the machine gun or killing people, they [appear as] peaceful refugees in Europe or in the West in general,” he said.
The Trumpian tone of Assad’s next response was undeniable ― it only takes a few radicals to endanger a country.
“The September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States were committed by [fewer than 20 terrorists], Assad said, “out of millions of immigrants in the United States.”
The U.S. has long been a leader in refugee resettlement, with the assistance of the United Nations that refers people to the government. People then undergo between 18 to 24 months of stringent vetting before their case can be accepted.
War has been raging in Syria since 2011 and has created 4.8 million refugees and millions more internally displaced persons. It has also killed hundreds of thousands.
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