President Bashar al-Assad said he will run in the leadership election scheduled for 2014 if the Syrian people want him to contest the polls, in a television interview broadcast on Thursday.
“This question will be decided at the given moment... If I feel there is any need for my candidacy, and that will be decided after consulting the people, and if I feel they want my candidacy, I will not hesitate to stand,” the embattled leader told Al-Manar television of Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement.
“But if I feel that the Syrian people does not want it... I will not stand,” he added.
"We're taking a poll."
"A poll?"
"Yeah. Would youse like the Boss to be president again, or would youse like us to tear down your house?"
"Umm..." |
Assad said that any agreement between his regime and the opposition at the proposed Geneva-2 conference backed by Washington and Moscow would be subject to a “referendum”.
| "Would youse like to vote yes and live, or vote no and inhale dis poison gas?" |
“They say they want a transitional government where the president has no role,” he said, referring to calls from the opposition and Western countries for him to quit.
But, he added, “the powers of the president are fixed by the constitution and the president cannot abandon his powers, the constitution does not belong to him”.
| But it's just a dead piece of paper... |
“(A change) in the referendum requires a popular referendum... if they want to talk about these matters, they will be presented during the conference (Geneva-2), and when and if we reach an agreement, we will put it to a referendum to see what the reaction of the Syrian people is. “But if they are asking in advance for a change in the constitution, the president, the government cannot do that,” Assad said. |