US Disheartened by Assad’s Crushing Victory: Iranian Cleric
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – A senior Iranian cleric said the Syrian nation’s overwhelming support for Bashar al-Assad as the Arab country’s new president has disappointed the US.
Assad’s landslide victory in Syria’s recent presidential elections and the high turnout of voters sent out a clear signal to Americans that they could not exert an influence in Syria by resorting to hostile plots, Tehran’s Provisional Friday Prayers Leader Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Movahedi Kermani said today.
He said the Syrian people demonstrated that they are withstanding the entire plots against their country and are standing against the foreign-backed terrorists and their crimes.
Ayatollah Movahedi Kermani also congratulated Assad on his victory in the polls and hailed the course of elections as a “great success” for Syria.
Bashar al-Assad won a landslide victory in the June 3 presidential poll with 88.7 percent of the vote, securing another seven-year term.
A total of 10.2 million people voted for Assad. The voter turnout stood at 73.42 percent. Syria’s Higher Judicial Committee for Elections stated that not any violations have been reported during the polls.
Assad’s outright victory in the polls came while the foreign-backed opposition groups inside Syria and most countries in the West, including the US, had denounced the election.
Syria has been gripped by deadly unrest since 2011. The UN says more than 130,000 people have been killed since the beginning of the unrest in 2011. More than 2.2 million Syrians have fled to neighboring countries while an estimated 4.25 million have been displaced internally.
