Syrian President Assad sworn in for 3rd term

7/16/2014

DAMASCUS — Syrian President Bashar Assad has been sworn in, marking the beginning of his third seven-year term in office.

State TV broadcast what it said was a live ceremony today from the presidential palace in Damascus during which Assad took the oath of office.

Assad was seen placing his hand on Islam’s holy book, the Quran, pledging to honor the country’s constitution in front of a large audience of parliament members and Muslim and Christian clergymen.

Assad was re-elected last month in a landslide victory amid a civil war in a vote dismissed by the opposition and its Western allies as a sham.

He won 88.7 percent of the ballots cast in the first multicandidate elections in decades. The voting didn’t take place in areas engulfed in fighting.