Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Sunday said he expected a parliamentary election to be held in February 2012 after a series of reforms that would let political groups other than his Baath party take part.
“The expected time for having the parliamentary election is February 2012”, he said during an interview broadcast on Syrian state television. He scoffed at Western calls for his ouster, and rejected them as worthless. “While withholding comment, we tell them that their words are worthless,” Assad said.
“Such remarks should not be made about a president who was chosen by the Syrian people and who was not put in office by the West, a president who was not made in the United States.” US President Barack Obama and the European Union on Thursday called for the Syrian president to step down, the first time they had explicitly said he should give up power.
