Syrian President Bashar Assad lashed out at his French counterpart on Thursday, accusing Francois Hollande of sponsoring terror in Syria and encouraging Western nations to reset their relations with his pariah government, after six years of civil war. The comments, which came in an interview with to French media outlets Europe 1 and TF1, were the latest in a string of Assad’s public remarks aimed at revamping his image in the West in the wake of military victories on the ground in Syria.