Syria elections bolster Assad and reveal weakness of opposition Syria's divided rebels and their foreign backers watch in disbelief as the regime holds an election to give President Bashar al-Assad a new seven-year term despite their three-year-old uprising. Professor of political science at the American University of Beirut, Dr. Hilal Khashan tells AFP that these elections let Assad "tell the world that he is a legitimate president". IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES / REFILING TO CORRECT VIDEO