Nationwide activities mark al-Assad’s swearing-in for new term in office

Students of the University of Damascus renewed allegiance to President Bashar al-Assad in a stand they held Thursday.
The participants in the stand, organized by the University’s branch of al-Baath Arab Socialist Party, chanted slogans reiterating unshakable support for President al-Assad in his third term in office for which he was sworn in on Wednesday afternoon.
Following the swearing-in ceremony, President al-Assad delivered a speech, which the university students considered “a new start” towards the building of the country’s future, reconstruction and eliminating the terrorist groups wherever on the Syrian soil.
In his speech, the President, who won a landslide victory in June 3 election with 88.7 % of the votes, applauded the Syrian people for their firm steadfastness and remarkable national awareness and deep belonging to the homeland throughout the crisis that is still raging in the country.
He called upon all the “honorable” and “free” Syrians to take part in the reconstruction process soon to start and strike corruption at its roots.
Waving the Syrian flags and posters of the President, the participants hailed the speech as a call for “consolidating the approach of national reconciliation” all around the country.
Among other headlines for the coming stage which the President shed light on in his speech, the participants found the continuation to combat terrorism until eradicating it a quite central point.
As much as they are hopeful, the students voiced confidence that the swearing-in day, with all the symbolic importance it implies, would be “a day for return to a modern and developed Syria.”
A celebration marking the swearing-in of President Bashar al-Assad for a new term in office was organized in Lattakia province.
The participants vowed to offer the dearest of sacrifices for Syria to live in dignity, voicing unswerving support to President Bashar al-Assad’s leadership and the Syrian army.
“The new constitutional term for President al-Assad amounts to being a victory for Syria and the will of the Syrian people…It drives home a strong message that the Syrian people are hell bent on wiping out terrorism,” said Firas Abdeen, a citizen who was at the celebration.
The participants affirmed that the June 3 presidential elections “painted an impeccable image of the Syrian people who showed determination to run their own affairs.”