Syria’s Assad halts parliament speech over low blood pressure: state TV

Aug 12, 2020

Low blood pressure forced Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to briefly stop his speech to parliament, state television said today. 

The 54-year-old leader was speaking to the assembly for the first time since last month’s parliamentary elections. He stopped for multiple sips of water, telling the audience, “My blood pressure has dropped and I need to drink water.”

“I need to sit for a minute if you don’t mind,” he told the room full of masked, distanced lawmakers, according to The Associated Press. 

Assad suddenly got down from the podium and left the room for “a few minutes,” according to the office of the Syrian presidency, which said he suffered a slight drop in his blood pressure. 

Upon returning to a cheering room, Assad joked that “doctors are the worst patients” and blamed the situation on going without food. 

Assad, a former ophthalmologist, isn’t reported as having any significant health problems. His wife, first lady Asma Assad, recovered from breast cancer last year. 

During his speech, Assad blamed American sanctions for his country’s most recent economic woes, including a currency that has plunged to historic lows. Ahead of Washington’s so-called Caesar Act sanctions in June, the Syrian pound tumbled to a record 3,000 to the US dollar. 

The US sanctions regime is designed to put economic pressure on Assad, who has presided over a conflict that has left hundreds of thousands dead and created the world’s worst refugee crisis.