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Executive Summary for June 5th

To give you an overview of the latest news, we’ve organized the latest Syrian developments in a curated summary.

Published on June 5, 2014 Read time Approx. 3 minutes

Assad Wins Re-Election

The Guardian reports that incumbent president Bashar al-Assad has claimed victory in the country’s first multi-candidate election in more than four decades. Both the Syrian opposition and its international backers have described the vote as a farce.

“Syria’s parliament speaker, Jihad Lahan, announced the final results from Tuesday’s election, saying Assad garnered 10,319,723 votes, or 88.7%,” the paper says. “Laham said Assad’s two challengers, Hassan al-Nouri and Maher Hajjar, won 4.3% and 3.2% respectively. The supreme constitutional court put turnout at 73.42%.

“After the results were released, Damascus erupted into a thunderous, rolling clap of celebratory gunfire that appeared to include heavy weaponry. On the streets of the capital, men cheered and whistled. Some broke into the familiar pro-Assad chant: ‘With our souls, with our blood, we sacrifice for you, Bashar!’

“Assad’s victory was always a foregone conclusion, despite the presence of other candidates on the ballot for the first time in decades. Voting was held only in government-controlled areas, excluding huge tracks of northern and eastern Syria that are in rebel hands. The opposition and its Western allies, including the United States, have denounced the election as a farce.”

Meanwhile, the New York Times says the win is a display of the Syrian leader’s confidence. For the past year, he has been winning the war, analysts say, if only by inches.

Assad was “asserting his confidence and defiance in the Syrian conflict as supporters savored his success in thwarting the United States,” writes Anne Barnard.

Speaking during an unannounced visit to Beirut yesterday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called the election a “meaningless” event that would not impact U.S. policy in Syria.

“The elections are non-elections. A great big zero,” the Washington Post quotes him as saying. Kerry noted noted that rebel-held areas were not equipped with polling stations, and that meaningful opposition candidates had not been allowed on the ballot.

“Nothing has changed between the day before the election and after,” he said.

Liz Sly writes that Kerry, speaking after meeting with Lebanese Prime Minister Tammam Salam, “said his visit was chiefly motivated by Lebanon’s failure to agree on a candidate for president who is acceptable to all factions. Lebanon has been without a president for the past 10 days because of disputes over who should fill the post.”

Ford: War Could Drag on for Years

Robert Ford, the former U.S. ambassador to Syria, said that the country’s war could continue for years. Ford left Damascus early in 2012, and the embassy there was closed.

“The situation in Syria has gone from bad to very bad to still worse, and the measures we have taken have been, in most cases, too little and too late,” he said in an interview with NPR’s Robert Siegel. He also criticized America’s failure to support the opposition with arms and military training.

“From the beginning of the armed opposition, they sought help from outside countries and they were very quickly competing for recruits, competing with al-Qaida groups who had better funding and they could get ammunition in. So now we have a pretty serious al-Qaida problem in Syria and we were very slow to react to that.”

Suggested Reads from Our Editorial Team

Reuters: China’s Xi Calls for Political Solution in Syria

Telegraph: Syrian Grandmother Under Siege in Aleppo: ‘Help me Find My Grandson’

Economist: The Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria

McClatchy: Radicals in Syria Holding 150 Students Abducted on Way to National Exams

BBC: Defiant Rebels Offer Stark Choice

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