Assad says family doesn’t own Syria, ready to be voted out
amman — Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said his family did not “own” the country they have run for 46 years, saying he would step aside if the Syrian people choose another leader in an election.
Assad also told a group of Belgian reporters that he saw promise in US President Donald Trump’s determination to fight Islamic State, although it was too early to expect any practical steps, state news agency Sana reported.
With backing from Russia and Iran, Assad now seems militarily unassailable in the Syrian civil war that spiraled from protests against his rule nearly six years ago during a wave of uprisings against Arab autocrats.
Assad, 51, came to power in 2000 after the death of his father, former President Hafez Al Assad, who became head of state in 1971 after a military coup the previous year.
Asked if he could imagine a Syria that was not run by his family, Assad said: “Of course. We don’t own the country. My family does not own the country.”
“Syria is owned by the Syrians, and every Syrian citizen has the right to be in that position,” Assad said. Russia, his most powerful ally, is seeking to revive peace talks aimed at ending a war that has shattered Syria into a patchwork of separate areas and killed hundreds of thousands of people.
Russia circulated a reformed Syrian constitution at peace talks in Kazakhstan last month that said no president could serve more than two consecutive terms, according to a copy seen by Reuters. Moscow says the document drafted by Russian specialists was only tabled for the purpose of discussion.
Moscow’s effort to revive peace talks follows the rebels’ biggest defeat of the war, when they were driven from eastern Aleppo in December by the Syrian army with decisive help from the Russian air force and Iranian-backed militias. — Reuters