Syria ruler Bashar Al Assad cast his vote in Damascus on a day dozens of delegates were meeting thousands of miles away at the United Nations European office in Geneva. The talks had been convened to resolve the Syria tangle, which has become a putrid mire of issues and questions haunting not only the West Asian nation but the larger Middle East. Photographs of a beaming Assad in a suit and tie along with his impeccably dressed wife showed them shaking hands with supporters.
Through the five-year Syrian crisis, the reviled leader and his cronies in government have appeared to show there is nothing wrong with the country and the world is out to malign them. As Syria burns amid the regime and rebels locked in a bloody battle of attrition, threat to life and property has become the new normal. A day doesn’t pass without regime troops and opposition groups talking about death and dismemberment.
As Rome burnt, they say, Nero fiddled. So as Syria burned, Assad voted in a fake democratic exercise. The election was held only in regime-ruled pockets. Most of the country’s population has been displaced, infrastructure blown up, health care is in a shambles and civic facilities defunct.
The farcical democratic exercise was likely undertaken at Russia’s bidding. Moscow, despite supporting the idea of a transitional government the very mention of which gets Assad’s goat, has backed the elections saying they will help prevent a vacuum that the transition might create.
Assad’s departure is the only sticking point in the Syrian crisis that has claimed close to 250,000 people and brought about a refugee crisis that has divided Europe over an issue that is not strictly internal.
The Syrian president has in the past said that the crisis, which has sent ripples across the world, has been triggered by people fleeing terrorism. Assad’s definition of terrorism is skewed to his own interest. The armed uprising erupted because a peaceful revolt was crushed mercilessly by regime forces.
Assad has been dismissive of any peaceful resolution of the conflict and is leaning heavily to Iran and Russia. Assad is the root cause of the Syrian civil war, which has led to the Islamic State getting a foothold in the country, and it can only end if he decides to go.
The Syrian ruler has been putting up a show of resilience that sometimes borders on naivete. Early in the crisis, Assad and wife were found buying super-luxury goods while blood flowed on the streets of Syria. In 2014, he gave a year-end timeline for the conflict to end.
Without a trace of contrition and bereft of guilt over millions of Syrians becoming refugees, Assad truly embodies the spirit of his dictator father Hafez Al Assad who perpetrated the Hama massacre.
Syria ruler Bashar Al Assad cast his vote in Damascus on a day dozens of delegates were meeting thousands of miles away at the United Nations European office in Geneva. The talks had been convened to resolve the Syria tangle, which has become a putrid mire of issues and questions haunting not only the West Asian nation but the larger Middle East. Photographs of a beaming Assad in a suit and tie along with his impeccably dressed wife showed them shaking hands with supporters.
Through the five-year Syrian crisis, the reviled leader and his cronies in government have appeared to show there is nothing wrong with the country and the world is out to malign them. As Syria burns amid the regime and rebels locked in a bloody battle of attrition, threat to life and property has become the new normal. A day doesn’t pass without regime troops and opposition groups talking about death and dismemberment.
As Rome burnt, they say, Nero fiddled. So as Syria burned, Assad voted in a fake democratic exercise. The election was held only in regime-ruled pockets. Most of the country’s population has been displaced, infrastructure blown up, health care is in a shambles and civic facilities defunct.
The farcical democratic exercise was likely undertaken at Russia’s bidding. Moscow, despite supporting the idea of a transitional government the very mention of which gets Assad’s goat, has backed the elections saying they will help prevent a vacuum that the transition might create.
Assad’s departure is the only sticking point in the Syrian crisis that has claimed close to 250,000 people and brought about a refugee crisis that has divided Europe over an issue that is not strictly internal.
The Syrian president has in the past said that the crisis, which has sent ripples across the world, has been triggered by people fleeing terrorism. Assad’s definition of terrorism is skewed to his own interest. The armed uprising erupted because a peaceful revolt was crushed mercilessly by regime forces.
Assad has been dismissive of any peaceful resolution of the conflict and is leaning heavily to Iran and Russia. Assad is the root cause of the Syrian civil war, which has led to the Islamic State getting a foothold in the country, and it can only end if he decides to go.
The Syrian ruler has been putting up a show of resilience that sometimes borders on naivete. Early in the crisis, Assad and wife were found buying super-luxury goods while blood flowed on the streets of Syria. In 2014, he gave a year-end timeline for the conflict to end.
Without a trace of contrition and bereft of guilt over millions of Syrians becoming refugees, Assad truly embodies the spirit of his dictator father Hafez Al Assad who perpetrated the Hama massacre.
