SYRIAN President Bashar al-Assad has warned Western powers that the refugee crisis is the result of their support for terrorists fighting his government.

In an interview with Russia Today broadcast yesterday, Mr Assad accused Europe of “double standards” and said that his government’s priority was the fight against terrorism.

He denounced EU leaders for providing “protection for terrorists, calling them moderates, (for) dividing them into groups, when they are in fact the terrorist groups in Syria.

“If you are worried about (refugees), stop supporting terrorists,” he said.

Mr Assad paid tribute to toddler Aylan Kurdi, who drowned with his brother and mother en route to Europe, but cautioned against overreaction.

“We all mourn these innocent victims,” the president said.

“But is one life lost drowned at sea more valuable than those who have died in Syria?

“How can one be indignant about a drowned child and remain silent about the death of thousands of children, elderly people, women and men killed by terrorists in Syria? These European double standards are unacceptable.”

Mr Assad called on other parties to join his Ba’ath party in the formation of a united front against Islamic State (Isis).

His comments came as ­Australian Defence Minister Kevin Andrews said that ­Canberra had bombed Isis ­targets in Syria and France announced that it too would begin bombing in weeks.

A spokesman for the US State Department repeated that there could be no role for Damascus in fighting Isis — despite the Syrian army bearing the brunt of the fighting in the four-year civil war.

In a phone call on Tuesday, US Secretary of State John Kerry threatened Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov with a protracted war in Syria if Moscow did not halt arms sales to Syria and instead support regime change.

Meanwhile, South African president Jacob Zuma echoed his Syrian and Russian counterparts in rejecting external military interference in Syria in violation of the UN charter.

“To achieve lasting peace in Syria, the international community must reject all calls for regime change in that country,” he said at a briefing for foreign ambassadors.

“Support for non-state actors and terrorist organisations that seek to effect a regime change in Syria is unacceptable.”