DAMASCUS – The Syrian president Bashar al Assad He was elected for a new seven-year presidential term at the helm of the Arab country with 95.1 percent of the vote in Wednesday’s elections. This was announced by the president of the Syrian Parliament, taken over by the official agency You. The electoral round, with a predictable outcome due to the lack of transparency in the compilation of electoral lists, access to candidacies and the validity of the count, was the subject of criticism from various Western countries.
The secrets of Assad
by Carlo Bonini (editorial coordination and text), Francesca Caferri (text). Multimedia coordination by Laura Pertici, graphics and videos by Gedi Visual
Italy, the United States, France, the United Kingdom and Germany – in a joint note from their respective foreign ministers Luigi Di Maio, Antony Blinken, Jean-Yves Le Drian, Dominic Raab e Heiko Maas – criticized the decision to organize the elections. “We denounce the Assad regime’s decision to hold an election outside the framework described in UN Security Council Resolution 2254 and support the voices of all Syrians, including Syrian opposition and civil society organizations, who condemned the electoral process as illegitimate “, reads the relevant official note. Assad is thus preparing for a new seven-year mandate, at the head of a country torn apart by a conflict that has lasted for ten years, has killed at least 600,000 people and forced half of the 22 million Syrian citizens to flee their homes .
What future for Syria
by GIANNI VERNETTI
The declarations from Russia and Iran, the two countries whose military support has allowed Assad to remain in power, are in an opposite tone to those of the West: both congratulated Assad on his “overwhelming victory”. “We consider the elections as a sovereign affair of Syria and an important step to strengthen its internal stability – reads in particular in the note released by Moscow – In this regard, we consider the declarations made by some Western capitals on the illegitimacy of the elections, made even before they take place, as an element of rude political pressure on Damascus and a further attempt to interfere in Syria’s internal affairs, with the aim of destabilizing it: no one has the right to impose on Syrians when and under what conditions they must elect their President”.
Syria, among the rebels of the ten years war
by our correspondent Pietro Del Re
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