Geagea: Assad Disconnected from Reality, Claiming the Presidency of People He's Exterminating

Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea on Wednesday ridiculed the swearing-in of Syrian President Bashar Assad, saying he is “claiming the leadership of a country whose people he has been exterminating for the past three years.”

"I don't know whether to laugh or cry on the so-called swearing-in ceremony of Syrian regime's President Bashar Assad,” Geagea told the Central News Agency.

"This person is completely disconnected from reality and this made him take on the presidency of a republic that no longer exists and take a constitutional oath of a constitution that does not exist,” he commented.

Geagea went on to say that Assad is “claiming the leadership of people he has almost exterminated in the past three years with all types and sizes of weapons, rockets...barrel bombs and chemical arsenal that have no cure and that targeted residential neighborhoods.”

"International organizations and agencies have recorded the death of 200,000 people of all sects and ethnicities and the destruction of cities and infrastructure,” he pointed out.

The LF leader continued: “How can a person claim the presidency of a country to which he has smuggled armed groups from Lebanon, Iraq and Iran and who outnumbered the Syrians fighting on his side?”

"Everyone knows that this president is still at his palace thanks to these foreign groups and we pray to God to save the Syrian people from the seemingly endless ordeal,” he expressed.

Assad was sworn in earlier on Wednesday for a new seven-year term, after winning the June 3 election held only in regime-controlled territories by 88.7 percent, defeating two other candidates seen as figureheads, rather than genuine opponents.

The Syrian presidential elections was denounced as a "farce" by his detractors as it was staged more than three years into a devastating war that has killed more than 170,000 people and uprooted millions.

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