Nasrallah
Photo: AFP/Al-Manar
Nasrallah: Assad must be part of Syria solution
Hezbollah leader says after Assad's election win, world can no longer demand his resignation as a precondition for peace.
Syrian President Bashar Assad's landslide election victory means that his civil war foes can no longer call for his departure as a precondition for peace, Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Friday.
The leader of the Lebanese group that has sent fighters to back the president, described the vote as a victory for Syria. Assad's foes called the election a charade.
"This election tells the opposition and all regional countries and the world that any political solution in Syria begins and ends with President Bashar Assad," Nasrallah told supporters via a video link.
"You can no longer put the resignation of the president as a pre-condition."
Assad is struggling to end a more than three-year revolt which started as peaceful anti-government demonstrations that descended into civil war.
Assad's opponents say his resignation is a precondition for any future peace agreement.
