Saudi King Salman accused Syrian President Bashar al-Assad Wednesday of having aided the rise of ISIS and called for a political settlement with moderate forces to end the war there, AFP reports.
The solution would be to form "a transitional government made up of moderate opposition forces, ensuring the unity of Syrians and the departure of foreign forces and terrorist organizations," the king said in an annual speech to the consultative Shura Council.
These organizations "could not have found fertile ground in Syria, had it not been for the Syrian regime's policies, which have exterminated hundreds of thousands... and displaced millions" of people, said the monarch.
The kingdom, a key-backer of Syrian opposition groups, has repeatedly insisted on Assad's departure.