Post date: Jan 13, 2014 12:27:44 AM
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is mobbed by people wanting to meet him and shake his hand inside the al-Hamad mosque in Damascus, after praying during the celebration of the Muslim Prophet Mohammad's birthday.
DAMASCUS, SYRIA (JANUARY 12, 2014) (AL-IKHBARIYA) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was mobbed by people seeking to shake his hand and meet him, after taking part in the celebration of Muslim Prophet Mohamad's birthday with prayers in al-Hamad mosque in Damascus on Sunday (January 12).
Syrian state TV showed pictures of Assad accompanied with Syria's Mufti Mohamad Badr al-Din Hassoun and Syrian Minister of Religious Endowments, as well as Syrian officials and clerics.After praying and listening to speeches inside the mosque, Assad shook hands with officials afterwards, before being quickly surrounded by dozens of people also seeking to shake his hand.
Representatives of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government and the opposition fighting to oust him are scheduled to meet with U.N. mediator Lakhdar Brahimi at a conference in Switzerland on January 22 to discuss ways of ending the nearly three-year-old conflict.
More than 100,000 people have died in the unrest in Syria.
Around 2.4 million have fled Syria and fighting has displaced more than 4 million others inside the country.