Change and Reform bloc leader MP Michel Aoun on Wednesday commended Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s “efforts to make reform” in Syria.

Change and Reform bloc leader MP Michel Aoun on Wednesday commended Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s “efforts to make reform” in Syria.

“We (praise) what President Assad has done (in his country),” Aoun told a visiting Syrian delegation at his residence in Rabieh.

He added that reforms should be “gradual,” and said that “real democracy cannot be achieved if the people were not (well)-prepared and educated.”

In a possible reference to the West, Aoun said that there are “attempts to create an Arab-Arab conflict instead of the Arab-Israeli conflict… in order to divide Arab states by inciting sectarianism.”

“They are attempting to trigger strife in Syria,” the MP added.