Former Israeli Arab lawmaker, Azmi Bishara criticized Syria on Wednesday, saying it is not a democratic state, and is in need of democratic reform.

He made the comments to Kuwaiti newspaper al-Qabas while attending the Second Forum on Democracy and Reform in the Arab World in Qatar this week.

The comments were unexpected, as Bishara is considered a supporter of Syria's Baath regime headed by current president, Basher Assad. A national referendum held last week granted Assad another seven-year term in power.

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Bassam Abdel-Majid, Syria's interior minister, told al-Jazeera newspaper's English edition that the poll was attended by more voters than ever before in the country's history. Al-Jazeera also reported that the Baath regime's opposition does not have legal status and could not field presidential candidates.

Bishara told al-Qabas newspaper that "Syria is not a democratic country, and a referendum held in this way doesn't prove that it is."

"Syria must make democratic reforms in the long term, as should all Arab nations," he said.

He further stressed that Syria was not the only Arab state requiring change, saying "Attention is focused on Syria as though it is the only non-democratic Arab nation in the region," he said, adding "Almost all Arab nations are non-democratic, but Syria's nationalist stance puts it apart from the rest and invites criticism."

Bishara praised Mauritania, where a military regime was recently toppled, giving rise to democratic elections. He said that if Mauritania had Arab neighbors, its attempt at democracy would have been frustrated by external interference.

Bishara has spent several weeks outside of Israel, in Jordan and Qatar, after being charged by Israel with committing treason during the Second Lebanon War. He told al-Qabas that the Israeli government invented false charges against him and have punished him heavily because it could not accept his political beliefs.