Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has been sworn in for a new seven-year term following an election; the opposition and its Western allies have dismissed the election as a sham.
He took the oath of office today Wednesday during a ceremony at the presidential palace in Damascus attended by members of the country’s parliament.
Last month Assad won a landslide election held only in government-controlled areas.
Speaking at the ceremony, the president warned that Western and Arab nations that supported what he called “terrorists” would pay a high price. He congratulated the Syrian people for their “victory,” telling the crowd that others “wanted it to be a revolution, but you were the real revolutionaries.”
The Syrian government routinely refers to rebels opposed to Assad as terrorists.
Western and Arab nations have given money and equipment to help opposition fighters during Syria’s nearly three and a half year civil war, but recently Assad’s troops have advanced on several fronts against poor-equipped rebels distracted by infighting.
The government says Assad won 89 percent of the June vote with 10 million people casting ballots.
An estimated 170,000 people have been killed and 2.9 million Syrians have fled to neighboring countries since the Syrian conflict began in March 2011. The fighting has forced another 6.5 million people from their homes within Syria.
