An international bid to ensure Syrians abroad are allowed to vote in potential future elections is being seen by the regime in Damascus as an attempt to ensure it loses.
The Western-backed opposition wants to include Ahrar al-Sham, Army of Islam and other Islamists within its military ranks.
BEIRUT – The Western-backed Syrian National Coalition is looking to include influential Islamist factions within the ranks of a new unified military structure, a coalition member says.
The move to restructure the military command comes after SNC chief Khaled Khoja on Tuesday dissolved the Supreme Military Council that ostensibly oversees the FSA.
The foreign ministers of Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) member states on Thursday said they would not recognize Syria's recent presidential election, saying the poll violated resolutions issued at the Geneva 1 and 2 conferences.
In a final communiqué issued following their meeting in Saudi Arabia's city of Jeddah, OIC foreign ministers added that the so-called "Geneva process" had called for the formation of a transitional Syrian government with the aim of launching an inclusive political process.
El presidente sirio, Bachar al Asad, recibió hoy por separado a los que fueron sus dos contrincantes en las pasadas elecciones, Hasan Abdalá al Nuri y Maher Abdel Hafez Hayar, en las que el mandatario fue reelegido.
Medios oficiales sirios mostraron imágenes del jefe de Estado en esas entrevistas en las que departió amigablemente con sus ambos políticos.
The language and statistics being used to fabricate Bashar Al-Assad's presidential victory expose his administration's true intent. It is highly unlikely, for example, that 11 million Syrians would participate in the poll in the midst of a total war being waged by the president against his people for three years.
La reelección del presidente Bachar al Asad en los comicios en Siria no supondrá grandes cambios políticos o militares en el país, según analistas, aunque la oposición armada ha amenazado con una escalada de los ataques contra el régimen.
"A lo mejor habrá alguna remodelación mínima en el Gobierno, en algunas carteras, pero poco más", consideró el experto del centro de investigación Carnegie de Oriente Medio, Yezid Sayigh.
La jefa de la diplomacia de la Unión Europea (UE), Catherine Ashton, aseguró hoy que las elecciones presidenciales en Siria fueron "ilegítimas" y "no democráticas" e instó a emprender un "verdadero proceso político" con el aval de la comunidad internacional.
"Las elecciones del 3 de junio no pueden considerarse como un voto verdaderamente democrático", indicó Ashton en un comunicado, a la vez que afirmó que cualquier elección que se celebre en Siria debería hacerse "en el marco de un verdadero proceso político acordado por la comunidad internacional".
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has won the presidential election in a landslide victory with 88.7 percent of the vote, the country’s parliament speaker said Wednesday, in an election dismissed as a sham by his opponents and held amid a raging civil war which grew out of protests against his rule.
Speaker Mohammad al-Laham said Assad secured 88.7 percent of the votes cast in the election which was restricted to the parts of Syria under the control of his forces.
Syrians began voting on Tuesday in an election expected to deliver an overwhelming victory to President Bashar Assad in the midst of a civil war that has fractured the country and killed more than 160,000 people.
Polling stations opened at 7 a.m. (0400 GMT) in parts of Syria under Assad's government control.
"We hope for security and stability," said Hussam al-Din al Aws, an Arabic teacher who was the first person to vote at one polling station at a Damascus secondary school. Asked who would win, he responded: "God willing, President Bashar al-Assad."
Thousands of Syrians lined up outside polling centers in government-controlled areas around the country to vote Tuesday in the presidential election that Bashar Assad is widely expected to win but which has been denounced by critics as a sham.
The balloting comes amid a devastating, three-year civil war that activists say has killed more than 160,000 people, about a third of whom were civilians. It's also Syria's first multi-candidate election in more than 40 years.
Information Minister Omran al-Zoabi asserted that the upcoming presidential elections herald the end of crisis in Syria, while forces in the US, Europe and the Gulf who support terrorism work to prolong the crisis.
The Minister told al-Manar TV on Friday that the elections are carried out according to the constitution and law, and that the greater majority of Syrians inside the country are in areas under the control of the Syrian state and army, and these people will take part in the elections.
Iran said Friday that next week's presidential election in Syria, branded a farce by Western governments, will boost the legitimacy of its ally Bashar al-Assad.
"God willing, the elections in Syria will be carried out without a hitch," said Ali Akbar Velayati, the senior foreign policy adviser to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
