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Tag: Assad

  • ASSAD unveiled as Official Mascot for Morocco 2025

    ASSAD unveiled as Official Mascot for Morocco 2025

    As excitement builds to the kick-off of Africa’s biggest event; the TotalEnergies CAF Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) Morocco 2025, CAF and the Local Organising Committee (“LOC”) have unveiled the Official Mascot for the competition, ‘ASSAD’ or ‘ⵉⵣⵎ’ in Amazigh.

    Inspired by the Atlas lion, one of Morocco’s most iconic national symbols and a unifying and powerful figure across the African continent.  His name, meaning “lion” in Arabic, embodies strength, pride, and cultural authenticity that resonates deeply with fans both in Morocco and throughout Africa.

    As an ambassador for the tournament, Assad embodies the joy, passion, and energy that define Africa’s most prestigious football competition.  He will play a crucial role in  building an emotional connection and engaging audiences of all ages, especially children and families, who are central to football’s culture and its future.

    Assad will play a leading role in fan engagement across stadiums, fan zones, and community events. He will support global marketing and promotional campaigns, enrich digital content and interactive experiences, and contribute to CAF’s long-term brand narrative.

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    Assad’s visual identity centres on a friendly, youthful lion whose expressive features and energetic personality reflect the warmth, creativity, and diversity of Africa. His colour palette and overall style align seamlessly with the TotalEnergies CAF AFCON Morocco 2025 brand, ensuring a unified and dynamic tournament look.

    Assad has been created not only for TotalEnergies CAF AFCON Morocco 2025, but for the future of African football. He will continue to feature in CAF grassroots and youth development programmes, school and community football initiatives, and future digital storytelling. As a long-term ambassador for African football, Assad aims to inspire and connect with the next generation across the continent.

    With Assad leading the way, the TotalEnergies CAF AFCON Morocco 2025 is poised to deliver an unforgettable experience, celebrating unity, pride, and the power of African football. The introduction of Assad represents a major milestone in shaping the tournament’s character and deepening its cultural impact.

  • Rebels close in on Damascus as Assad flees to Abu Dhabi

    Rebels close in on Damascus as Assad flees to Abu Dhabi

    Syrian rebel forces yesterday advanced on the capital Damascus from the north, east, and south, forcing government troops to  pull back from bases around the country to fortify positions around the capital city.

    Some reports said embattled Bashar al-Assad had fled to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to seek asylum but his government denied the reports.

    The rebels who have waged a 13-year long war against the al-Assad dynasty said yesterday they had seized the regions of Quneitra and Daraa near the border with Israel, as the Israel Defense Forces vowed a strong response in the event that they “turn in our direction.”

    Rebel Druze militias overran most of the army bases in Syria’s southern province of Suweida along the border with Jordan.

    Rebel commander Hassan Abdel Ghani, with the alliance led by Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) that launched the offensive in the country’s northwest, said that “our forces have begun the final phase of encircling the capital, Damascus.”

    The rebels said they had successfully penetrated the central areas of Homs,which is seen as a testament to the growing strength and coordination among various rebel groups operating in the region.

     The capture of Homs would not only provide a significant morale boost to the rebels but also serve as a strategic base for future operations against government forces.

    Worried residents of Damascus are either fleeing of stockpiling food and other items at home following the unfolding development around the capital.

    Reports in Turkey said a private jet departed Damascus and arrived in Abu Dhabi  yesterday , carrying al-Assad and the rest of his family, as they fled rebels rapidly taking control of his country.

    Flight radar data reviewed by bne IntelliNews showed a private aircraft leaving the Syrian capital and later landing in the United Arab Emirates.

    The reports were dismissed as untrue by Assad’s spokespersons.

    Reacting to the situation US President elect Donald Trump said his country should have nothing to do with the Syrian matter.

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    Expressing his view on X yesterday,Trump said: “Opposition fighters in Syria, in an unprecedented move, have totally taken over numerous cities, in a highly coordinated offensive, and are now on the outskirts of Damascus, obviously preparing to make a very big move toward taking out Assad.

    “Russia, because they are so tied up in Ukraine, and with the loss there of over 600,000 soldiers, seems incapable of stopping this literal march through Syria, a country they have protected for years.

    “This is where former President Obama refused to honor his commitment of protecting the RED LINE IN THE SAND, and all hell broke out, with Russia stepping in.

    “But now they are, like possibly Assad himself, being forced out, and it may actually be the best thing that can happen to them. There was never much of a benefit in Syria for Russia, other than to make Obama look really stupid.

    “ In any event, Syria is a mess, but is not our friend, & THE UNITED STATES SHOULD HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH IT. THIS IS NOT OUR FIGHT. LET IT PLAY OUT. DO NOT GET INVOLVED!”

    Al-Assad,59,assumed the Syrian presidency in 2000 in succession to his father,Hafez,who ruled from 1971 until his death in 2000.

  • Syria will defend itself against aggression

    Syria will defend itself against aggression

    Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said on Thursday that Syria would defend itself against any aggression, following reports that the U.S. and its allies were preparing military action in response to an alleged chemical weapons attack.

    “The threats of direct aggression against Syria will only increase our commitment to our deep-rooted principles and the independent will of our people.

    “Syria will defend itself in the face of any aggression,” state television quoted Assad as telling a delegation of Yemeni politicians.

     

     

  • Syria: Obama, Cameron threaten ‘serious response’

    Syria: Obama, Cameron threaten ‘serious response’

    The United States and the United Kingdom have threatened a “serious response” if it emerges Syria used chemical weapons last week.

    President Barack Obama and Prime Minister David Cameron spoke on the phone for 40 minutes on Saturday, BBC reports.

    Both were “gravely concerned” by “increasing signs that this was a significant chemical weapons attack carried out by the Syrian regime.”

    The Syrian regime and opposition have accused each other over the attacks.

    Rebels and opposition activists accuse forces supporting President Bashar al-Assad of carrying out chemical attacks around Damascus on August 21, while state TV accuses the rebels.

    “The United Nations Security Council has called for immediate access for UN investigators on the ground in Damascus,” the Downing Street statement said.

    “The fact that President Assad has failed to co-operate with the UN suggests that the regime has something to hide.”

     

  • Assad accuses UK of ‘bullying’ Syria

    Assad accuses UK of ‘bullying’ Syria

    Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has accused the British government of bullying and naivety in its approach to the conflict in his country.

    In an interview with the United Kingdom’s Sunday Times newspaper, he said Britain was determined to militarise the situation.

    BBC says he repeated his conditional offer of talks with the opposition and dismissed suggestions that he might step down.

    The UK says it supports the Syrian opposition but does not provide rebels with arms.

    However, at a recent Friends of Syria meeting in Rome, Foreign Secretary William Hague said military aid was possible in the future.

    Mr. Assad, in a rare interview with a Western newspaper, accused UK Prime Minister David Cameron’s “naive, confused, unrealistic” government of trying to end an European Union arms embargo so that the rebels could be supplied with weapons.

    “We do not expect an arsonist to be a firefighter,” he said.

    “To be frank, Britain has played a famously unconstructive role in our region on different issues for decades, some say for centuries.

    “The problem with this government is that their shallow and immature rhetoric only highlights this tradition of bullying and hegemony.”

    He added: “How can we expect to ask Britain to play a role when it is determined to militarise the problem?

    “How can you ask them to play a role in making the situation better, more stable? How can we expect them to make the violence less while they want to send military supply to the terrorists and don’t try to ease the dialogue between the Syrian(s).”

    About 70,000 people have been killed in the Syrian uprising that started almost two years ago. Hundreds of thousands of refugees have fled to neighbouring countries.

     

  • Assad still unrepentant, murderous, chimerical

    Assad still unrepentant, murderous, chimerical

    The Syrian uprising, a subset of the Arab Spring that began in Tunisia in December 2010, is about 22 months old. So far, according to United Nations (UN) estimate, some 60,000 people have lost their lives in the civil war that is now raging all over Syria. After many months of disunited rebellion opposition groups have finally shed their Free Syrian Army toga and united under the umbrella of the Syrian National Coalition (SNC). Alarmingly, however, the rebellion is becoming an all-out sectarian war between Shiites and Sunnis. The economy of the country has all but collapsed, and untold suffering, massive destruction of infrastructure, and a fragmented and shattered society have resulted from the seemingly endless war. The world must, therefore, have been shocked two days ago to watch the beleaguered President Bashar Al-Assad mount the stage of the Damascus Opera House to give a television address lambasting the opposition and deigning to offer what he believed to be a solution to the crisis.

    Barely six months into the uprising that began in March 2011, Hardball had predicted that the uprising would progress into a civil war, especially given the hardening of government position and the antecedents of the senior Hafez al-Assad who brutally suppressed a Muslim Brotherhood uprising against his government in 1982. That suppression more than 30 years ago led to the death of an estimated 40,000 people in Hama, according to Syrian Human Rights Committee. If in 2011 it had seemed Hardball was unduly hardline, by the following year, however, he was predicting that the uprising could turn sectarian, given the fact that the al-Assads, who are Alawites, belong to the minority Shiites (13% of the population), as their Iranian supporters, while the opposition is largely Sunni (74% of the population), as their Wahhabi Saudi Arabian and Qatari supporters. Unfortunately for Syria, the war has all but become sectarian.

    But Hardball also predicted in 2012 that there was no way the rebels could lose, for history, demographics, the spirit of the Arab Spring, and popular international sentiments favoured them. Indeed, both the support for al-Assad and the reluctance of the West to commit completely to the cause of the rebels could be due to apprehension of how Sunni victory would redraw regional power structures. It is unlikely Western reluctance is caused by fear of Chinese, Russian and Iranian support for Syria’s Baathist government. The West in fact appears unsure that the Syrian variant of the Arab Spring is motivated by the hunger for democracy, especially in view of the recent controversy in Egypt that has led to the approval in a referendum of a new constitution with distinct Islamic overtones. The sectarian composition of Syria and the history of the Muslim Brotherhood revolt in Hama may also account for why the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood government under Mohammed Morsi intensely detest al-Assad. It will be recalled that Morsi on Sunday called for al-Assad to be tried for war crimes.

    In the final analysis, no matter how long-drawn the civil war in Syria becomes, the rebels will win. Al-Assad’s television address on Sunday tabling a condescending proposal for peace will be scorned. The offer, according to a news agency report, consists of the following:

    — Outside powers to stop arming “terrorist groups.”

    — The army would then halt military operations, while reserving the right to defend state interests.

    — The government would then contact “Syrian individuals and political parties” to engage in a conference of national dialogue.

    — The conference would try to establish a national charter that would be put to a referendum, leading to parliamentary elections and a new government.

    The West, with the unintended power shift in Iraq on their minds, will also reluctantly offer support to the rebels only because of the scale of the Syrian slaughter, and then wait with bated breath to see which way the sectarian and democratic pendulums would swing. Russia, China, and Iran will eventually come to terms with the reality of al-Assad’s deposition, no matter how galling. The unrepentant and chimerical al-Assad, who is still breathing murder and cruelty, will be lucky to escape with his life. However, sooner or later, the current stalemate will be broken; but it will be at a terrible cost to the country, even as many top officials, including ordinary Syrians, will pay a terrible and prohibitive price for freedom, of course, without the calming effect of knowing the shape of the future.

     

  • Assad to speak on Syrian conflict

    Assad to speak on Syrian conflict

     

    Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is to give a rare speech to the nation, state media says, as he continues to battle an uprising against his rule.

    The address will cover “the latest developments in Syria and the region”, according to the Sana news agency.

    It comes amid fierce fighting close to the capital, Damascus.

    The United Nations estimates that more than 60,000 people have been killed in the uprising against President Assad, which began in March 2011.

    BBC says the speech will be Mr. Assad’s first public address since June.

    In an interview with Russian TV in November – his last public comments – he said he would “live and die in Syria.”

    Since then opposition rebels have gained control of swathes of territory in northern Syria, and have formed a more inclusive leadership council which has been recognised by the United States and the European Union.

    But opposition efforts to gain ground in and around major cities including Damascus have been met by stiff resistance and increasingly destructive air strikes.

    On Saturday the activist Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported fierce fighting in Harasta and Daraya, suburbs of Damascus.

    Diplomatic attempts to end the conflict in Syria have so far failed.