Al Assad all set to win Syria poll
02:28PM Sun 1 Jun, 2014
Beirut: It was not so long ago that Bashar Al Assad’s enemies thought he was finished.
In the summer of 2012, the rebels were not just at the gates of Damascus, but inside the capital, preying on Al Assad’s harried forces.
His government had lost big chunks of Syria’s territory and a string of strategic towns, and a small number of loyal and tested army units were rotating around the country in an exhausting attempt to hold back rebel advances on many fronts.
Not any longer.
Now, even as the United States seeks to increase aid and training to moderate rebels to fight Al Assad’s forces, US officials privately concede Al Assad isn’t going anywhere soon.
Buoyed by a sequence of victories over the past year, won in large part through Iran and Hezbollah, its Lebanese paramilitary proxy, Al Assad will be elected president this week for a third seven-year term, symbolically contested by selected opponents playing walk-on roles to pad out the main drama.
The old Syria — at its core a security state run by the Al Assad clan, their Alawite allies and selected partners from other minorities and the Sunni majority — is reasserting itself.
Al Assad himself, who had almost dropped out of sight and, on the rare occasions he did appear in public, looked troubled and strained, has re-emerged looking relaxed, confident and smart as he gets out and about, campaigning with his wife, Asma.
Reuters
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