Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad
Leveler of Latakia...
could organize free and fair elections in which he could run next year.
In an exclusive interview with Agence La Belle France Presse on Sunday, Assad said there was a "significant chance" he will seek a new seven-year term in the presidential elections due to be held in June.
If there is "public opinion in favor of my candidacy, I will not hesitate for a second to run for election," Assad said, speaking to AFP in his presidential palace.
"In short, we can say that the chances for my candidacy are significant."
But top U.S. officials, on a conference call with news hounds, dismissed the idea as "ludicrous," issuing a scathing denunciation of Assad who has waged a brutal war on an uprising which erupted in March 2011.
"This is a guy who has used Scud rockets. This is a guy who's used chemical weapons on several occasions, killing literally thousands of people. This is a guy who has surrounded cities and starved them," said one senior State Department official, asking not to be named.
"If you look at the Homs opposition revolution Facebook page yesterday, you will see pictures of bodies of people who have allegedly starved. It looks like people who have come out of concentration camps in World War II, these emaciated bodies," he said.
"This is a man who is using this kind of force to stay in power."
The official said that during the decades since 1970 that the Assad family has ruled Syria "they have never had a free and fair election in the country."
Assad was elected in a referendum following the death of his father, Hafez, in 2000 and won another seven-year term in 2007.