Syria's Bashar Assad: "The project of political Islam has failed"

No wonder the majority of the population in Syria like the guy. Only the religious nuts don't because he does not pander to their superstitious whims and fancies.
While he prepares to hold the elections in a couple of months or so, he's also confidently stating that the civil war is in its end phase. That's going to be a relief to millions of Syrian refugees living in tents on the borders and millions more displaced in Syria itself.

Curses of the worst kind on any nation or individuals creating further trouble for the  troubled land of Syria.  Let the man pick up the pieces and build anew.  

From YahooNews:
....The "project of political Islam has failed," Syria's President Bashar al-Assad said on Monday, calling for the separation of religion from politics, state television said.

Assad's regime has been battling an uprising that has come to be dominated by Islamists, ranging from moderates to radicals, who want to see Syria run as an Islamic state.
"The project of political Islam has failed, and there should be no mixing between political and religious work," he said in comments on the 67th anniversary of the founding of his Baath party.

Assad refers to all those fighting against him as "terrorists" and has said that he is battling extremists with retrograde ideas.
The president has repeatedly stressed the need for all parts of Syrian society to challenge "extremism".

Assad said his government was also "continuing with the process of reconciliation, because what concerns us is ending the bloodshed and the destruction of infrastructure".
In recent months, Assad's government has negotiated limited ceasefires with rebels who agree to raise the government's flag in their neighbourhoods, and in many cases turn over their weapons......

From APNews:
...Syrian President Bashar Assad   is quietly preparing the ground to hold elections by early this summer to win another 7-year term, even as the Syrian conflict rampages into its fourth year with large parts of the country either in ruins or under opposition control and nearly a third of the population scattered by civil war.

Amid the destruction, which has left more than 140,000 dead, presidential elections may seem impossible. But Syrian officials insist they will be held on time.

The election is central to the Syrian government's depiction of the conflict on the international stage. At failed peace negotiations earlier this year in Geneva, Syrian officials categorically ruled out that Assad would step down in the face of the rebel uprising aimed at ousting him. Instead, they present the elections due at the end of Assad's term as the solution to the crisis: If the people choose Assad in the election, the fight should end; if Assad loses, then he will leave.......