Syria’s Assad ‘ready to stand in new election’

Bashar Al Assad said he was ready to take part in the polls 'if the people are not against it', according to a Russian lawmaker.

Bashar Al Assad is willing to eventually hold parliamentary and presidential elections. EPA / SANA / Handout

Moscow // Syria’s president Bashar Al Assad is willing to eventually hold parliamentary and presidential elections and is ready to run for the presidency again, a Russian lawmaker said on Sunday.

“He is ready to conduct elections with the participation of all political forces who want Syria to prosper,” Russian lawmaker Alexander Yushchenko said from Damascus after meeting Mr Al Assad as part of a delegation.

Mr Al Assad said he was ready to take part in the polls “if the people are not against it”, Mr Yushchenko added, speaking after the 1.5-hour meeting that included other Russian lawmakers.

“He is absolutely sure of himself.”

Mr Yushchenko, who is a member of the communist party in Russia, stressed that Mr Al Assad was ready to discuss constitutional reform and eventual elections only after Syria is “liberated” from ISIL extremists.

The announcement will likely anger western-backed moderate rebels as well as Washington and its allies who say there is no future for Mr Al Assad in post-conflict Syria.

Some of his opponents say he should step down during a transition, while others insist on his immediate resignation.

Russia, one of the main backers of the Assad regime, says it is up to the Syrian people to decide his fate.

On Saturday, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said it was time to start preparing for elections in Syria and also said Moscow was ready to provide air support for western-backed “patriotic” rebels battling both extremists and Mr Al Assad.

The offer of help apparently represented a marked shift in Moscow’s position.

Russia had previously only used the word “patriotic” to describe groups backing Mr Al Assad.

Representatives of Syria’s western-backed opposition rejected Russia’s offer, saying Moscow should first stop bombing moderate rebels.

The Russian delegation's meeting with Mr Al Assad in Damascus caps a week of intense diplomacy which also saw president Vladimir Putin host Mr Al Assad at the Kremlin for a surprise summit on Tuesday. It was the Syrian leader's first known foreign trip since the outbreak of unrest in 2011.

After the unannounced talks, Mr Lavrov and US secretary of state John Kerry agreed in Vienna on Friday to explore new ways of trying to reach a political settlement.

Syria last held presidential elections in June 2014, with Mr Al Assad re-elected for a seven-year term with 88.7 per cent of the vote.

The election was dismissed by the opposition and condemned internationally.

The country last held parliamentary elections in May 2012, and it is in theory due to hold its next legislative vote in 2016.

Russia and the West have been at loggerheads over Mr Al Assad’s fate – a major sticking point in efforts to solve a crisis that has killed more than 250,000 people since 2011 and sparked an exodus of around four million refugees.

* Agence France-Presse