Al-Assad: The Baath party does not own the country

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said that the Baath party leads the state and the authority but does not own the country which is the property of all the Syrians.

This was expressed in a speech, that lasted for three hours, the Syria President made in conclusion of works of the 10th regional congress of the Baath party in which al-Assad was elected unanimously as a Baath party secretary general.

The congress also elected 14 members including nine new, mainly the defense minister Hassan Turkmani, the director of the general intelligence Hisham Bikhtiar, the speaker of the parliament Mahmoud al-Abrash and the director of the studies office at the Presidential palace Haitham Sateyhi.

Several Baath party leaders quit their posts including Vice President Abdul Halim Khaddam, former defense minister Mustafa Tlass, and the speaker of the parliament Abdul Qader Qaddoura.

In addition to President Bashar al-Assad, the only remaining members from the old leadership, which used to have 21 members, are the foreign minister Farouk al-Shara whose policy was strongly criticized during the congress as extremist, the prime minister Muhammad Naji al-Otari, the finance minister Muhammad al-Hussein and the chairman of the national security office Muhammad Saeed Bkheitan. For the first time, a Syrian woman was chosen as a member of the Baath party regional leadership. Shahnaz Fakoush from Deir Ezz Zour.