Assad Visits Displaced outside Damascus
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربيةSyrian President Bashar Assad is making a rare trip outside the capital to meet people displaced by the country's three-year-old civil war, state media reported on Wednesday.
"President Assad is inspecting conditions for the displaced in Damascus province," state television said.
"President Assad is touring shelters for the displaced... and listening to their needs.
"The state continues to secure basic necessities for the displaced until they can return to their homes in Adra and elsewhere," state television quoted Assad as saying.
State news agency SANA later said Assad added: "The state is continuing to fight terrorism and the terrorists who forced citizens out of their homes and committed ugly crimes against them."
The government refers to rebels fighting Assad's rule as terrorists.
SANA said Assad was visiting Adra northeast of the capital, and his office's official Twitter account released a photograph of him talking to women and children at the town's Dweir shelter.
In pictures published by SANA, Assad is shown standing next to his bodyguards, talking to children and hugging them.
Another picture shows Assad, wearing a suit, white shirt and no tie, shaking hands with an elderly woman in a headscarf, while another shows him along with a man, four children and two veiled women.
Adra, considered a strategic gateway to Damascus, has seen frequent clashes between the army and rebels.
Control of the town and its adjacent industrial park remain contested, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Assad rarely makes public appearances, and most of those have been within the confines of the capital.
He was last reported at a public event in January, when he attended prayers at a Damascus mosque.
Assad is expected to seek a new term in a presidential election planned for the middle of the year, despite the raging conflict that the Observatory says has killed more than 140,000 people since March 2011.
Great Post Southy... and we all know that Bashar and his pops never had blood on their hands...you're a disgrace!
The most adequate option ya habibi is always the one chosen by the people! Not the one imposed to them by the shabiha and a totaliterain regime! Bashar had it comming, it was just a mater of time! I don't think that the majority of the Syrian people today want Nusra or isil, or some of this crap, but years of jailing, beating, torturing, murdering in Lebanon and in Syria, sur did not help the one you call "the most adequat option"! I am Lebanese above all, and NEVER will forget what the Assads did to US!!
Southern, the opposition groups didn't have to be the only other option. Had Bashar and his father before him instituted a true democracy, other viable candidates would have arisen. However, when you oppress and murder a population for over a generation, opposition groups like the ones we're seeing today begin to take shape and to garner popular support. It's very myopic to look at the current situation so simplistically as being "regime vs. terrorists." No sane person supports terrorism. However, these people may be the only ones who can change the regime, which is something that is desperately needed. I wish that both sides of the equation in Lebanon would work together to support a regime change in Syria that is comprised of a third option that truly serves the needs of the population; especially the displaced.
scorpion this has nothing to do with democracy, otherwise you can be sure that saudi and qatar wouldnt have supported it. it has to do with enemies of syria and the arab world wanting to take down a secular arab nationalist regime and replace it with fanatical freaks and/or sold out puppets.
you dont promote progress by destroying a country, massacring its people, antagonizing sects, annihilating its infrastructure and assassinating its intellectual elites or causing them to flee the country.
the only sane way is the one of reforms, step by step evolution and constant efforts. bashar had started a process when his term began, and he clearly showed willingness to accelerate it when the legitimate protests started (end of martial law, freeing of political prisoners, new constitution, opening elections to opposition candidates etc...) but those behind the chaos in syria wanted none of this
the more he accelerated the reforms, the more concessions he made, the more the armed groups became violent, showing that was clearly not what they want.
@Southern : if you stop supporting hezbollah and others stop supporting mustaqbal, you will go a long way to putting an end to sectarian division.
You want to end sectarian division, stop supporting the largest sectarian party in lebanon !
Nonsense !
The Assad regime that started the civil war, after 40 years of terror that lead to massive protests, after torturing teenagers for writing anti-Assad graffiti on a wall.
Assad had previously aborted real pro-democratic reforms, and responded to the protests by assassinations of unarmed protesters.
The biggest terrorist group in Syria is the Assad regime, far surpassing the notorious ISIS, a group which had its' origins with the Assad regime as well.
Using guerrilla warfare doesn't make the rebels terrorists. Even the Assad forces often use such tactics, when they are not barrel bombing civilians, flattening neighbourhoods with scud missiles, or strafing bread lines at bakeries. Not to forget using banned chemical weapons to kill 1400 mostly women and children in a single night.
Anyone who respects human rights should want the monstrous Assad regime ousted. Only the ISIS could be as bad.
Luckily, it is the more moderate rebel groups that dominate the rebellion.
ur cheap propaganda is no opinion.
If I was saying ISIS is the best option, I would expect to be insulted... We all u're not lebanese...
I'm sure you believe Bashar is also the most adequate option to rule Lebanon no ? You miss our country being full of Syrian Moukhabarat and roadblocks ?
Do you remember the atrocities Bashar's regime has done in Lebanon ? Do you deny he's a criminal ?
What do you have to say about them smuggling bombs through Samaha to Lebanon ? Do you regret the fact that he got caught ? Would you have been happy if he wasn't and the bomb ended up killing and hurting hundreds of Lebanese ?
Would you give up your Lebanese passport for a Syrian one ?
There is nothing in the world you can say to convince us Bashar is an option at all !
Cigar, your words are wise and expressive yet succinct. I wholly agree with your assessment.
Everybody knows we're not the same person, but you deny reality, to manipulate the vulnurable and the weak. Your gang, you know who, poison debates and spread hate and poison and obstruct debate, and I've seen this countless times. It's a shame you're allowed to continue your impedement of social debate and trying to extort people with your gang unabated, and unchecked by the naharnet staff. I mean the staff that doesn't actually participate in the debates and is an objective judge. I remember having those a couple of years ago, not so much today.
@ coolmec : judge by urself if reply is too strong :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GY94oYEUs-8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zx6fJ7kHBBA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E12SKIEhCrQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hr6o9q-cwy8
He's right you know, your post right here attests to the fact that you have nothing worthy of contributing except empty posts or hateful remarks, if not that then just outright slander like in the isf-nusra article. Ever since you and the 3 or 4 others like you joined, the qualit of the forums plummetted, and I'm sure you know that, and did it perhaps even willingly. You certainly are no lebanese.
Bani if you are designed specifically to disrupt us Lebanese way of life, then you are failing. I would suggest to you sir (out of respect) is to go back to whatever country that you came from, (in your past life) be it Israel, Samaria, Assyria, philistine, or even Magog, Lebanon has and well always be Lebanon, (google history) . You will not succeed to destruct our great country nor the great people that call themselves Lebanese. Now can I ask you a question? What are you now, that is, what have you being reincarnated to? From a serpent to ?????
So you think it's weak to follow a politician blindly ( and I agree with you there) but you don't think it's weak to "deal" with the devil you and not the one you don't know? 2 questions there if you don't mind. If you don't know the second devil, then why are you afraid of it more than the devil you know?
Second question. How have we ever been able to "deal" with the devil you seem to prefer? I'd say it has been a pretty miserable experience dealing with said devil for the past 30 years. Time for him to go to fiery place where devils reside. My point of view at least.