Venezuela's Maduro hails Assad win in Syria

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Venezuela-s-Maduro-hails-Assad-win-in-Syria_16814198

CARACAS, Venezuela (AFP) -- Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro offered his congratulations yesterday to Syria's Bashar al-Assad for his victory in an election seen as illegitimate by the West and the opposition in Damascus.

Maduro said Assad's election win, giving him a new seven-year term, "reaffirms his leadership of the legitimate Syrian Government," according to a statement issued by the Venezuelan foreign ministry.

Maduro, a staunch US critic who considers Assad an ally, "reiterated his strong condemnation of the destabilising acts of mercenaries still going on in Syria," and denounced "voices from the West who have not recognised this election and instead want war to continue".

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He also accused UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon of helping to promote war in Syria, after he announced a UN finding that chemical weapons had been used near Damascus.