Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said on Friday December 11th, that he would not negotiate Syria’s future with “armed groups” as the West and the embattled Syrian President try to come to an agreement that would end the nearly five year old civil war. “There’s no point in meeting in New York or anywhere else without defining terrorist groups” Mr. Assad said in an interview with the Spanish press agency EFE, referring to the many armed groups who are hoping for Assad’s ouster. “For us anyone who holds a machine gun is a terrorist.”

The civil war in Syria began on March 15th 2011, as part of the Arab Spring which spread across the Middle East and also Northern Africa saw the overthrowing of numerous dictators including the longtime dictator of Libya, Muammar Gaddafi who ruled the country from 1969 until 2011.

“We are ready to start negotiations with the opposition” the President continued in his interview. “And the opposition for any person in the world does not mean armed groups.”

The armed groups Mr. Assad referred to include numerous groups who have taken up arms against the longtime President, including groups who have wanted to move Syria in a more democratic system to groups like ISIS who want to establish Syria under a religious caliphate and have already done so in parts of Syria and Iraq.

Many Western countries have said that Mr. Assad will have to leave power in order for there to be a transitional phase from violence to peace including the United States and Saudi Arabia, who have been a key supplier of weapons and materiel to moderate opposition groups within Syria and also Iraq.

However, Russian President Vladimir Putin seemed to have a change of heart about the Free Syrian army who the Russian Air Force has been bombing, by saying on Friday December 11th that the Free Syrian Army has been taking part in “offensive actions against terrorist, alongside regular forces, in the provinces of Homs, Aleppo and Raqqa”, referring to the Free Syrian Army as an opposition group and not a terrorist group as Mr. Assad have referred to the army.

The civil war has not only affected Syria but also the European continent as more than a million refugees have crossed the Mediterranean Sea in 2015 in largely unseaworthy vessels, which have caused the deaths of thousands attempting to flee the conflict.

Greece, Italy and Spain have seen the most arrivals of refugees as Greece has seen 818,654, Italy 150,200 and Spain 3,592 all of which try to use the country they landed in as a bridge to Germany which is seen as one of the friendliest countries to refugees on the continent.

The outflow has also caused a divide among the European countries as they have had trouble devising a plan to break up the refugees and sending them to different countries.

“In principle we are ready for dialogue, and in order for the dialogue to be successful, you have to deal with real national opposition that has a popular base in Syria.”

If President Assad was truly concerned for his country’s future and for the stability of Syria, he would agree to a ceasefire that would see him step down as president and for a truly democratic process to take effect.