European Document Rejects 2021 Syrian Presidential Elections

Damascus is set to hold the elections in mid-2021 based on the 2012 constitution. (Reuters)
Damascus is set to hold the elections in mid-2021 based on the 2012 constitution. (Reuters)
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European Document Rejects 2021 Syrian Presidential Elections

Damascus is set to hold the elections in mid-2021 based on the 2012 constitution. (Reuters)
Damascus is set to hold the elections in mid-2021 based on the 2012 constitution. (Reuters)

European countries have kicked off a drive to approve a document, submitted by France, that rejects “any presidential elections not based on United Nations Security Council resolution 2254.”

Damascus is set to hold the elections in mid-2021 based on the 2012 constitution. President Bashar Assad’s reelection is all but secured. His allies, Moscow and Tehran, already support the elections, with Russia hoping that they will mark a “turning point” that would end Damascus’ isolation. It is hoping that they would pave the way for Arab and European countries to restore diplomatic and political ties with Syria, help in its reconstruction and acknowledge the legitimacy of the polls.

Guaranteed win
UN envoy to Syria Geir Pedersen was informed that the elections and the proceedings of the Constitutional Committee were not connected. The committee is tasked with drafting a new constitution, which should ideally be ratified after the elections.

There were hopes that the new constitution would have been drafted before the polls so that they would be held according to, but the committee has failed to make any significant progress in five rounds of talks, the last of which took place earlier this year. Pedersen himself acknowledged the failure after the last round, indirectly pinning blame on the regime.

Holding the elections according to the 2012 constitution allows Assad to comfortably win a third seven-year term in office. Nominees need to have continuously resided in Syria for ten years. Their candidacy must also be approved by 35 members of parliament.

Moscow has implied that reforms to these conditions could be approved during the 2024 parliamentary elections. The ruling Baath had swept the 2020 elections, effectively meaning that the fate of any presidential candidate lies in its hands.

No figure has submitted their nomination for the presidential elections, but some media campaigns have started to hit the ground in government-held areas. Reports have said that efforts are underway to reach an understanding with the Kurdish autonomous authority in the region east of the Euphrates to set up polling stations there. The authority controls about a quarter of Syrian territory.

It is unlikely that polling stations will be set up in the northeastern opposition-held Idlib province, the north and neighboring countries hosting refugees, such as Turkey and Jordan, with the exception of Lebanon.

Western countries have criticized Russia for suggesting that the presidential elections and Constitutional Committee talks should be separated, saying that will only harm the political process. Western countries have previously rejected the 2012, 2016 and 2020 parliamentary polls and the 2014 presidential ones.

Rejection of elections
Representatives of European countries have already started to hold meetings to approve the “French document” to take a united stance over the presidential elections.

Asharq Al-Awsat obtained a copy of the document, which calls for reviving the UN mediation that has been inactive for three years. The mediation should breathe new political life and help reinvolve the Syrian people, inside and outside the country, in the political process.

It expressed opposition to attempts by the regime and its allies to declare an end to the crisis by holding “fraudulent” elections in 2021. It slammed the authorities for failing to commit to the political process outlined in resolution 2254 and for failing to directly address the root causes of the crisis.

It expressed concern that the upcoming elections would be held based on a constitution and laws that grant the regime sole power. It warned that the elections would be exploited by the regime and its backers to unilaterally declare an end to the crisis while failing to commit to anything that meets the aspirations of the people. Moreover, it warned that the elections will discourage refugees from returning home.

The document said European countries have felt the direct impact of the Syrian crisis, both on the level of security and with migrants. They are therefore, greatly invested in preventing the political process from veering off its right course. They called for holding transparent elections based on resolution 2254, which will effectively help resolve the crisis, not deepen it.

It is obvious such transparent elections will not be held any time soon, the document lamented.

Any elections that are not held according to the resolution cannot help end the crisis, rather they will only undermine efforts to reach a real sustainable political settlement, continued the document.

It cited Pedersen’s remarks that a political settlement in line with resolution 2254 is not viable without holding free and transparent presidential elections.

The document proposed four working steps: Guaranteeing that refugees inside and outside Syria take part in the voting process; implementing confidence-building measures and finding a neutral and safe environment to hold the polls; preparing the legal conditions to stage the elections; allowing the UN to oversee the voting process and securing the greatest level of impartiality.

EU position
Members of the European Union are expected to approve the document when they meet on March 15 to mark the tenth anniversary of the conflict. They are set to push for increasing the UN’s jurisdiction and bolster Arab contribution in the Syrian elections, explaining that the Arabs are a main element in resolving the crisis.

Neighboring countries will be encouraged to cooperate with Pedersen to help stage the elections for Syrian refugees. The Syrian diaspora, civil society and opposition should be supported to allow them to clearly express their demands over the presidential elections. The document suggested that efforts should be launched to hold future elections based on resolution 2254 and in a way that allows expatriates to vote without having to receive prior approval from the official Syrian authorities.

Western-approved elections would follow four rules: Strict guarantees that allow refugees and the displaced to take part in the voting; confidence-building measures that would create a secure and impartial environment for voters; preparing the legal ground for a plurality vote; allowing the UN to oversee the polls to ensure their utmost transparency.

Pedersen has refused to be involved in preparations to hold the presidential elections, saying they were beyond his jurisdiction.



Fear Stalks Tehran as Israel Bombards, Shelters Fill Up and Communicating Grows Harder

Shops remain shuttered Tehran's historic Grand Bazaar, Monday, June 16, 2025. (AP)
Shops remain shuttered Tehran's historic Grand Bazaar, Monday, June 16, 2025. (AP)
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Fear Stalks Tehran as Israel Bombards, Shelters Fill Up and Communicating Grows Harder

Shops remain shuttered Tehran's historic Grand Bazaar, Monday, June 16, 2025. (AP)
Shops remain shuttered Tehran's historic Grand Bazaar, Monday, June 16, 2025. (AP)

The streets of Tehran are empty, businesses closed, communications patchy at best. With no bona fide bomb shelters open to the public, panicked masses spend restless nights on the floors of metro stations as strikes boom overhead.

This is Iran’s capital city, just under a week into a fierce Israeli blitz to destroy the country's nuclear program and its military capabilities. After knocking out much of Iran's air defense system, Israel says its warplanes have free rein over the city's skies. US President Donald Trump on Monday told Tehran's roughly 10 million residents to evacuate “immediately.”

Thousands have fled, spending hours in gridlock as they head toward the suburbs, the Caspian Sea, or even Armenia or Türkiye. But others — those elderly and infirm — are stuck in high-rise apartment buildings. Their relatives fret: what to do?

Israeli strikes on Iran have killed at least 585 people and wounded over 1,300, a human rights group says. State media, also a target of bombardment, have stopped reporting on the attacks, leaving Iranians in the dark. There are few visible signs of state authority: Police appear largely undercover, air raid sirens are unreliable, and there’s scant information on what to do in case of attack.

Shirin, 49, who lives in the southern part of Tehran, said every call or text to friends and family in recent days has felt like it could be the last.

“We don’t know if tomorrow we will be alive,” she said.

Many Iranians feel conflicted. Some support Israel's targeting of Iranian political and military officials they see as repressive. Others staunchly defend the country and retaliatory strikes on Israel. Then, there are those who oppose Iran’s rulers, but still don't want to see their country bombed.

To stay, or to go? The Associated Press interviewed five people in Iran and one Iranian American in the US over the phone. All spoke either on the condition of anonymity or only allowed their first names to be used, for fear of retribution from the state against them or their families.

Most of the calls ended abruptly and within minutes, cutting off conversations as people grew nervous or because the connection dropped. Iran’s government has acknowledged disrupting internet access. It says it's to protect the country, though that has blocked average Iranians from getting information from the outside world.

Iranians in the diaspora wait anxiously for news from relatives. One, an Iranian American human rights researcher in the US, said he last heard from relatives when some were trying to flee Tehran earlier in the week. He believes that lack of gas and traffic prevented them from leaving.

The most heartbreaking interaction, he said, was when his older cousins with whom he grew up in Iran told him “We don’t know where to go. If we die, we die.”

“Their sense was just despair,” he said.

Some families have made the decision to split up.

A 23-year-old Afghan refugee who has lived in Iran for four years said he stayed behind in Tehran but sent his wife and newborn son out of the city after a strike Monday hit a nearby pharmacy.

“It was a very bad shock for them,” he said.

Some, like Shirin, said fleeing was not an option. The apartment buildings in Tehran are towering and dense. Her father has Alzheimer’s and needs an ambulance to move. Her mother's severe arthritis would make even a short trip extremely painful.

Still, hoping escape might be possible, she spent the last several days trying to gather their medications. Her brother waited at a gas station until 3 a.m., only to be turned away when the fuel ran out. As of Monday, gas was being rationed to under 20 liters (5 gallons) per driver at stations across Iran after an Israeli strike set fire to the world's largest gas field.

Some people, like Arshia, said they are just tired.

“I don’t want to go in traffic for 40 hours, 30 hours, 20 hours, just to get to somewhere that might get bombed eventually,” he said.

The 22-year-old has been staying in the house with his parents since the initial Israeli strike. He said his once-lively neighborhood of Saadat Abad in northwestern Tehran is now a ghost town. Schools are closed. Very few people even step outside to walk their dogs. Most local stores have run out of drinking water and cooking oil. Others closed.

Still, Arshia said the prospect of finding a new place is too daunting.

“We don’t have the resources to leave at the moment,” he said.

Residents are on their own

No air raid sirens went off as Israeli strikes began pounding Tehran before dawn Friday. For many, it was an early sign civilians would have to go it alone.

During the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, Tehran was a low-slung city, many homes had basements to shelter in, and there were air raid drills and sirens. Now the capital is packed with close-built high-rise apartments without shelters.

“It's a kind of failing of the past that they didn’t build shelters,” said a 29-year-old Tehran resident who left the city Monday. “Even though we’ve been under the shadow of a war, as long as I can remember.”

Her friend's boyfriend was killed while going to the store.

“You don’t really expect your boyfriend or your anyone, really to leave the house and never return when they just went out for a routine normal shopping trip,” she said.

Those who choose to relocate do so without help from the government. The state has said it is opening mosques, schools and metro stations for use as shelters. Some are closed, others overcrowded.

Hundreds crammed into one Tehran metro station Friday night. Small family groups lay on the floor. One student, a refugee from another country, said she spent 12 hours in the station with her relatives.

“Everyone there was panicking because of the situation,” she said. “Everyone doesn’t know what will happen next, if there is war in the future and what they should do. People think nowhere is safe for them.”

Soon after leaving the station, she saw that Israel had warned a swath of Tehran to evacuate.

“For immigrant communities, this is so hard to live in this kind of situation,” she said, explaining she feels like she has nowhere to escape to, especially not her home country, which she asked not be identified.

Fear of Iran mingles with fear of Israel

For Shirin, the hostilities are bittersweet. Despite being against the theocracy and its treatment of women, the idea that Israel may determine the future does not sit well with her.

“As much as we want the end of this regime, we didn’t want it to come at the hands of a foreign government,” she said. “We would have preferred that if there were to be a change, it would be the result of a people’s movement in Iran.”

Meanwhile, the 29-year-old who left Tehran had an even more basic message for those outside Iran:

“I just want people to remember that whatever is happening here, it’s not routine business for us. People’s lives here — people’s livelihoods — feel as important to them as they feel to anyone in any other place. How would you feel if your city or your country was under bombardment by another country, and people were dying left and right?”

“We are kind of like, this can’t be happening. This can’t be my life.”