The news that Syria has been appointed to the World Health Organization's executive board has outraged many Syrians who feel the Assad regime should be held accountable for war crimes.
US, UK, France, Germany, Italy condemn Syria’s presidential election 1 Hours
A Syrian voter shows a ballot with the pictures of the three candidates in Syria’s presidential election, including President Bashar al-Assad (right), before casting her vote in Damascus on May 26, 2021. (Photo: Louai Beshara/AFP)
WASHINGTON, DC (Kurdistan 24) – The foreign ministers of the US and four major European powers issued a statement on Monday, the day before Syria’s presidential election, strongly criticizing the vote.
“We, the Foreign Ministers of France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States of America wish to make clear that Syria’s May 26 presidential election will neither be free nor fair,” the joint statement of the five senior diplomats began.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s guaranteed re-election win
Only three out of 51 candidates who filed applications are allowed to run in the vote that one person said was to ‘whitewash’ the regime’s crimes
By Bethan McKernan / The Guardian
The last time Syria held a presidential election in 2014, there was no question over whether Syrian President Bashar al-Assad would win but with opposition forces in control of the country’s cities, as well as the suburbs of the capital, Damascus, his future was still far from certain.
Seven years later, after the regime’s Russian and Iranian allies intervened and turned the tide of the country’s civil war, most of Syria is now back under al-Assad’s grip.
Posted by Scott Lucas | May 24, 2021 |
A man rides a bicycle past campaign billboards of Bashar al-Assad, Damascus, May 23, 2021 (Louai Beshara/AFP)
UPDATE, MAY 24: Syrians abroad have spoken about the staging of Wednesday’s Presidential “election” to keep Bashar al-Assad in power.
Saed Eido, originally from Aleppo and now in Gaziantep in southeast Turkey, said:
My brother disappeared into a regime prison in 2013. We still have no idea if he is alive or dead. They won’t give us any information. All this Presidential election does is whitewash crimes and maintain a dictatorship.
With State media featuring gatherings for Assad but not the other two nominal candidates Mahmoud Ahmad Mar’ai and Abdallah Saloum Abdallah Suhail al-Ghazi, a non-resident fellow at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, explains: