Sochi _ H.E. President Bashar al-Assad and Russian President Vladimir Putin held a meeting in the Russian city of Sochi in the presence of a number of senior Russian political and military officials.
President Putin congratulated President al-Assad over the successes achieved in Syria in the fight against terrorism, stressing that the Syrian people are approaching victory over the terrorists, according to SANA.
The Russian President said that the meeting aims at coordination and consultation between the Syrian and Russian sides ahead of the summit scheduled to be held between the Iranian and Turkish presidents, indicating that what is important now is paying attention to the political process in Syria and that Russia is working with everyone in this regard.
President Putin underlined the important time of this visit to increase coordination between the two sides, conduct further consultations and listening to the Syrian leadership’s assessment of the current situation in Syria, form of next steps and the leadership’s vision of the political process and role of the United Nations regarding it prior to Russian-Iranian-Turkish summit.
The Russian President said that “Russia highly appreciates the readiness shown by the Syrian government and its openness to all those who wish peace and support provided by President Assad to the Astana process, in which the participants succeeded in establishing de-escalation zones and starting dialogue with various Syrian parties.
President al-Assad said that the Russian military operation in support of the Syrian Arab army’s war against terrorism has achieved important and significant results on various levels, mainly the political, humanitarian, and political ones.
President al-Assad added that the victories achieved against terrorism led to restoring security to many areas and hence the return of citizens and normal life and at the same time pushed the political track to resolve the crisis in Syria.
President al-Assad said that “ Syria supports any political action, especially after the decline of terrorism and the doors are open locally and internationally for backing this track,” emphasizing that Syria is ready to work with every country willing to contribute to political solution since its depends on Syrian sovereignty and the Syrian decision.
“On behalf of the Syrian people and on my own behalf, I would like to pay tribute to the Russian state institutions, on top the Russian Aerospace Force, for their efforts in combating terrorism in Syria, particularly that these institutions made great efforts in Syria and offered martyrs.” President al-Assad said.
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Hafez Bashar al-Assad, son of the Syrian president, from Brazil during his participation in the International Olympiad of Mathematics in Rio de Janeiro, spoke about his positions on the current Syrian crisis and his scientific and professional future.
In an interview with the Globo news group, Asad Jr. insisted that he was not the best player in the Syrian team to participate in the Olympics, which will last until Saturday.
The organizers of the Olympics confirmed that Hafiz Bashar al-Assad has been in Brazil since last Thursday, "amid a secret security operation." But the son of the Syrian president made a comfortable interview with journalists and spoke to them in fluent English. Hafez stressed that he was "a young man like any other young man" and would never leave his country.
He added that he was proud to represent his country in this international competition for youth, stressing that he fought local competitions to win the right to join the Syrian team at this international event. He insisted that he was a Syrian citizen like everyone else, living in his country and seeing all the horrors of war.
He denied that the war in Syria was civil, insisting that it was a battle for the return of the homeland. He stressed that hope was never lost in his country and that the people and the government were united in the face of the forces intervening to seize the country.
"From my own point of view, I hope the war will not last long, but such problems need time to settle them. It is more difficult. The crisis has been going on for 6 years and I hope it is coming to an end
Asked if he wanted to leave Syria, the president's son stressed: "No, never."
Hafez said that while participating in international competitions across the world, he sometimes faces questions about his political positions, but people quickly understand that he is a perfectly normal young man. "I have always lived like a normal child, and my friends see me as a normal person. I'm as ordinary as others. "
On his career, Hafez said he wanted to be an engineer, but he did not choose his future competence.
Asked how he felt when people said his father was a 'dictator', Hafez stressed that he knew very well what kind of man his father belonged to. He pointed out that people say many things about the president, but many of them are blind and their words not true.
As for the participation of the Syrian team in the Olympics, Hafiz said that the aim is for young Syrians to show the world that their country will be much better and that the new generation is capable of bringing peace.
In a message to the youth of Syria, Hafez said he was counting on the hope that no young man would die, and stressed that tireless efforts would allow everything to be achieved.
"The most important thing, even in the most difficult times, is hope. The Olympics show that. "
As for his impression of Rio, Hafez said the city resembled Damascus a little, stressing that most areas of the city are safe, but there are dangerous neighborhoods. He stressed that there is always a possibility to end the violence and impose control over the situation.
Source: oglobo.globo.com
Oksana Shvanjuk
Syrian president's son: I know what kind of man my father is
RIO DE JANEIRO — The son of Syrian President Bashar Assad said people who call his father a dictator don’t understand the reality of his country and that the population is united with him in fighting “invaders,” Brazil’s O Globo newspaper reported.
Hafez Assad, 15, is part of Syria’s delegation at the International Math Olympiad, a two-week event being held in Rio de Janeiro organized by the Institute of Pure and Applied Mathematics, or IMPA. During his time in Rio he reportedly visited Rio’s Christ the Redeemer statute and Sugar Loaf Mountain.
Hafez Assad, who was named after his grandfather, had kept a low profile until he was interviewed by an O Globo reporter who asked him how he felt about people calling his father a 'dictator'.
“I know what kind of man my father is. As president, people say a lot of things (about him). Many are blind. But this (what they say) isn’t reality,” Hafez Assad responded in Monday’s report.
“I live and see the horror that is happening in my country,” he said. “The population and the government are united against the invaders that are taking the country.”
Brazil in recent years has received more refugees from Syria’s conflict, over 2,300, than any other country in the Americas, and it has a large Syrian diaspora dating back to early twentieth-century migration.
Dr. Mohamad Abdo Al-Ibrahim
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Assad in Person: Confident, Friendly, No Regrets
By ANNE BARNARD NOV. 1, 4, 2016
DAMASCUS, Syria — The guns were silent atop Mount Qasioun and the lights on its slopes twinkled over Damascus as President Bashar al-Assad of Syria welcomed a group of Western visitors into his French-Ottoman palace on Monday night, presenting himself as a man firmly in control of his country.
He radiated confidence and friendliness as he ushered a group of British and American journalists and policy analysts into an elegant wood-paneled sitting room where he claimed that the social fabric of Syria was stitched together “much better than before” a chaotic civil war began more than five years ago. It was as if half his citizens had not been driven from their homes and nearly half a million had not been killed in the bloody fighting for which he rejected any personal responsibility, blaming instead- as a matter of fact- the United States and Islamist militants.
“I’m just a headline — the bad president, the bad guy, who is killing the good guys,” Mr. Assad said. “You know this narrative. The real reason is toppling the government. This government doesn’t fit the criteria of the United States.”
It was a surreal meeting for me after years of writing about a devastating and intractable war that has reduced several of Syria’s grand city centers to rubble and prompted accusations of war crimes. While hundreds of thousands of Syrians are besieged and hungry, here was Mr. Assad, secure in his palace because he has ''outsourced much of the war to Russian, Iranian and Hezbollah forces''…
He was on a mission to convince the West that their governments had made a mistake in backing his opponents and that he was secure in his position as the custodian of Syrian sovereignty.
Waxing philosophical, he spoke of every Syrian’s right to be “a full citizen, in every meaning of this word,” and likened intolerant versions of religion to a computer operating system that needed to be updated. He promised that a new era of openness and dialogue was underway in Syria and said that he was thinking ahead about how to modernize Syrians’ mentality after a war that he believed his forces were assured of winning.
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DAMASCUS, (ST)_ The Syrian People are fully enthusiastic to participate in the ongoing Parliamentarian voting as the early hours of the voting indicated, outlined H.E. President Bashar Hafez Al-Assad.
Casting his vote along with the First Lady of Syria, Mrs. Asma Al-Assad, here Wednesday, President Al-Assad added in a statement that the participation in the elections included all components of the Syrian Society, on top are the families who lost sons at the hands of terrorism, the family members of the Martyred and wounded, who sacrificed their souls or bodies in defense of the homeland.
'The homeland is the territories, People and institutions and all that unites these factors is the Constitution. Accordingly, the President and his wife vote today, as Syrian citizens in defense of the constitutional duty," added H.E. President Assad.
"The Syrians have been waging for 5 years a war against terrorism, which though shed the innocents blood and destroys more of the infrastructure, but indeed failed to destroy the Syrians' national social identity," reiterated President Al-Assad.
"The Syrian People have been aware about the operators and masters of terrorists bids as to strike the Syrians' national identity and social structure; accordingly the landslide immense enthusiasm to participate in all of the previous constitutional duties, presidential and legislative, and in today's elections, which witnessed unprecedented huge numbers of candidature nominations compared to previous parliamentarian elections," added H.E. President Al-Assad.
Dr. Mohammad Abdo Al-Ibrahim
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DAMASCUS, (ST)_ The safety of Syria is the only objective which equals your sacrifices in soul, body or health, H.E. President Bashar Al-Assad told some of the martyred or wounded of the Syrian Arab Army and some of their mothers.
In celebration of the Mother's Day anniversary, H.E. President Bashar Al-Assad along with the First Lady, Mrs. Asma Al-Assad, hold a reception ceremony honoring some mothers for the martyred Army personnel and for some wounded Army personnel and their mothers.
"Once Syria is back to safety, I think everyone among you would but say that his hand, leg, eye and health had been restored back to perfection. The same, I believe, is for every Martyrs' family who would feel as if their martyred had been reborn once the homeland is back to safety," said H.E. President Al-Assad.
President Al-Assad pointed out that the terrorist war against Syria changed even the Mother's Day celebrations from a family climate into feasts of heroism, bravery and sacrifices, and asserted that behind this heroism and these heroes, there are the families which have brought them up.
Mothers are the main source of heroism, added H.E. President Al-Assad, asserting that the factory of the heroes are the mothers how to bring children up.
You are Live examples for future generations as leading the example to learn from and by you, added President Al-Assad, pointing out that ''we love the homeland and those who defend the homeland'', citing the States activities and those by charity figures as to initiate and establish Projects for the martyrs and wounded and for employment opportunities.
''We are to care on a daily basis to improve the living conditions and the health conditions of the wounded, and Your sacrifices are priceless." Concluded H.E. President Bashar Al-Assad.
Dr. Mohammad Abdo Al-Ibrahim
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The late Mrs. Anisa Makhlof Al-Assad, the widow of President Hafez Al-Assad, had ever been standing with and by him as his soul mate in thinking, dedication, values, honesty. In fact her role was even greater than what might be seen, as she did not like to be in the limelight and dedicated her life to work in silence, but with the highest level of efficiency and sincerity.
In a commiseration article in Wattani press Website, Dr. Bouthaina Shaaban, the Political and Media Advisor at the Presidential Palace, added that the late First Lady of Syria, Mrs. Anisa Makhlof Al-Assad, was in a room beside the Late President's room when she heard that the phone handset dropped on the floor and hurried up to find the handset on the ground! She always used to remember him out of respect as the president, whom she had tried in vain to convince as to go to Lattakia only for short days as take some rest; the late President always used to respond that he had no time to take rest!
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DAMASCUS, (ST)_ The Presidency of the Syrian Arab Republic announced Saturday evening the untimely demise of the mother of President Bashar Hafez Al-Assad, the beloved Anisa Makhlof
The widow of the late President was born in Lattakia Governorate in the year 1930.
In 1957, she was married to the Late President, who was by then First Lieutenant, and since then she completed her life with him till the untimely demise of the Late President on June 10, 2000.
The untimely demise of President Bashar Hafez Al-Assad's mother crowned a long journey of dedication, humanitarian and charity works and sacrifices along with the late president for the welfare and well being of the Syrians.
The late President Hafez Al-Assad, the builder of modern Syria, and his wife, have a five-person family: a female Boushra, four males: Bashar, Maher and two other deceased brothers Bassel and Majd.
We pray for the rest of the souls of the deceased mother and for her rest in Paradise.
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MOSCOW, (ST)- President Bashar Al-Assad and the Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday discussed Syria- Russia military operations against terrorism in Syria in addition to issues relating to the fight against extremist organizations and the continuity of the Russian airstrikes which backs the Syrian armed forces’ operations in different areas across the country.
The two Presidents affirmed that the final say about Syria’s future must undoubtedly be to the Syrian people.
President Al-Assad briefed the Russian President on the situation in Syria plus the plans and military operations of the Syrian Arab Army against terrorists and expressed the Syrian people’s gratitude for the Russian support in this respect.
“Terrorism hinders political solution and any military actions should be followed by political steps,” President Al-Assad said, reiterating the need for stopping all forms of support for the terrorist organizations and for opening the way for the Syrian people to decide their future themselves.
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H.E. President Bashar Hafez Al-Assad underlined in his recent inauguration landmark speech the need as to deal with some urgent issues as to solidify, fortify and immunize Syria. No priority can be higher than dealing with the cited challenges by H.E. President Al-Assad. For overlooking these facts is tantamount to being separated from reality:
Today, together, we start a new stage that is characterised by a consensus to protect our nation and to rebuild it morally, psychologically and materially and a consensus on eradicating terrorism and bringing back into the fold all those who have lost their direction
We start a new stage having overcome dangerous and critical challenges, thanks to the steadfastness of our people in the face of a terrorist and psychological war, until we reached the presidential elections – the elections that expressed Syria’s full and unified independence.
Looking forward to the future, we need to address the large gaps that have appeared in our national fabric.
This requires our concerted efforts and our standing shoulder to shoulder in the next stage, which means an interactive relationship between the people, their leadership and their government.
The role of a leadership does not eliminate the role and contribution of the people; similarly the presence of a leadership or a government should not imply total reliance upon it.
This interactive relationship means that we move forward together towards the desired future, if we mean to succeed in our endeavour.
Hence the word ‘Sawa’ or ‘together,’ which focuses on enhancing the sense of responsibility in every one of us ensuring we move forward as one nation.