Bashar al-Assad has been sworn-in for a third seven-year term as President of Syria at a ceremony in Damascus, after winning an election his opponents dismissed as a "farce."
After swearing on Islam's holy book, the Quran, in front of parliamentarians in an extra-ordinary session on Wednesday, he delivered a challenging inauguration speech in which he scorned enemies at home and abroad against the setting of a civil war which has claimed up to 160,000 lives since 2011.
"Syria will continue its fight against terrorism to strike it wherever it is until peace has been restored in every part of the country,” he said in his speech broadcasted live by the state television.
Syria has been gripped in an ongoing civil war since 2011 in which between 100,000 and 160,000 people have been killed and close to half of the 22 million population displaced, according to the UN.
Scorning his enemies in the West and the region for having been captivated by the "fake" freedom calls at the height of the Arab spring, he said the movement had brought nothing but "chaos" to the region.
"They wanted a revolution, but you were the real revolutionaries. I congratulate you for your decisive victory," he told parliamentarians, referring to the start of the uprising in 2011.
In a presidential election held only in government-controlled areas on June 4, Assad was declared the winner with 88.7 percent of the votes.
Some critics have dismissed the poll as a “farce,” with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry calling it "a great big zero".
A team of international observers, who monitored the polls, only comprised of people from Assad's regime allies - Russia, North Korea and Iran.
During Assad's inauguration ceremony on Wednesday, four people were killed after opposition forces fired mortars into central Damascus, according to Syrian state news agency SANA.
Mortars hit al-Shaalan, al-Diwaniyah and the Abu Rummaneh neighborhoods of Damascus, opposition activist group Syrian Revolution General Commission said.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.
www.aa.com.tr/en
