Syrian President Bashar al-Assad failed to engage with his people and address issues like the return of refugees during a period of calm in the country’s war, Qatar’s prime minister said Saturday.

Axar.az reports that citing AFP, “Al-Assad didn’t seize these opportunities to start engaging and restoring his relationship with his people, and we didn’t see any serious movement, whether it’s on the return of the refugees or on reconciling with his own people,” Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al-Thani said at the Doha Forum for political dialogue.

Qatar – which gave early support to the rebels after al-Assad’s government crushed a peaceful uprising in 2011, leading to the civil war – remains a fierce critic of the Syrian leader but is calling for a negotiated end to the fighting.

Sheikh Mohammed said the world had been “surprised” by the speed of a recent rapid advance by armed opposition groups in Syria and cautioned that the situation might become “more and more dangerous,” threatening a return to a more intense level of civil war.

He added such an outcome would “damage and destroy what’s left, if there is not any sense of urgency to start putting (in place) a political framework for what’s happening over there... in order to find a political solution.”