DAMASCUS (Dispatches) – Syria’s Grand Mufti Sheikh Ahmad Badreddin Hassoun says Damascus has been repeatedly offered a deal according to which the terrorists would cease their hostilities against the government if it made concessions to the Zionist regime.
Since the outbreak of the foreign-backed militancy five years ago, the Syrian government has been receiving offers to make a tit-for-tat deal to end the crisis, Hassoun said in an interview with the Lebanese al-Mayadeen TV channel.  
Since 2011, "we have been receiving unofficial offers to make a deal that would end it: ‘If you announce you would end hostilities against Israel and if you expel the Palestinian resistance from your territory and cut your relations with Hezbollah, we would stop fighting against you.”
The grand mufti lashed out at terrorist groups fighting against the Damascus government, saying they serve the joint Israeli-Western bid to ruin Syria.
"While previously it was France and Britain who divided Sham (Greater Syria) according to ‘political borders’, those who hit Sham today are Muslims who lost their mind and decided to prevent it from becoming a starting point for the liberation of al-Quds (Jerusalem),” Hassoun stated.
The senior Muslim cleric said the foreign-sponsored Takfiri groups who are killing Muslims in the name of God "do not understand that they serve the interests of Israel.”
He further called on those who join terrorist groups operating in Syria to go to Palestine to fight the Tel Aviv regime instead.  
Referring to Takfiris, Hassoun said "40,000 Muslims from Europe are fighting in Syria. Why do none of them go to fight in Palestine.”