Syrian President Assad Mourns Mandela's Death, Calls Icon's Life A Lesson To Tyrants

Assad Calls Mandela's Life A Lesson For Tyrants
FILE - In this file photo released on early Thursday Sept. 19, 2013, by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrian President Bashar Assad speaks during an interview with Fox News channel, in Damascus, Syria. As the United Nations invited Syria's government and opposition for peace talks in Geneva in January, President Bashar Assad's opponents who want him out of office are sharply divided and still haven't agreed on whether they will go as one team or each faction will act on its own. (AP Photo/SANA, File)
FILE - In this file photo released on early Thursday Sept. 19, 2013, by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrian President Bashar Assad speaks during an interview with Fox News channel, in Damascus, Syria. As the United Nations invited Syria's government and opposition for peace talks in Geneva in January, President Bashar Assad's opponents who want him out of office are sharply divided and still haven't agreed on whether they will go as one team or each faction will act on its own. (AP Photo/SANA, File)

BEIRUT, Dec 6 (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, two and a half years into a blood-soaked rebellion against his rule, mourned Nelson Mandela's death on Friday, calling his life an inspiration for freedom fighters and a lesson to tyrants.

Mandela, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, died at his Johannesburg home late on Thursday, prompting an outpouring of mourning and homage from world leaders across the political spectrum.

The Syrian presidency added its voice to the chorus with a statement on its Facebook page on Friday, calling the South African statesman "an inspiration in the values of love and human brotherhood".

"His history of struggle has become an inspiration to all the vulnerable peoples of the world, in the expectation that oppressors and aggressors will learn the lesson that in the end it is they who are the losers," the statement said.

Syria's conflict began in March, 2011, as a peaceful protest movement calling for democratic reforms but, after a government crackdown, degenerated into all-out civil war.

World powers have remained deadlocked over how to resolve the war, which has killed over 100,000 people and torn much of the country into militia-run fiefdoms, including some ruled by al Qaeda-linked factions of radical Islamists. (Reporting by Alexander Dziadosz; editing by Andrew Roche)

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World Mourns Nelson Mandela's Passing

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