MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Ecuador does not discard asylum for Syrian president Bashsar al Asad

President Correa has openly supported the Syrian regime as he did previously with Libya’s Khadafi

Ecuadorean president Rafael Correa does not discard granting political asylum to Syrian president Bahsar al Asad and confirmed that a diplomatic envoy from that government recently visited Quito, according to an interview with the Brazilian media.

“Any person that requests asylum in Ecuador, obviously we are going to consider it, since it’s a human being and we must respect his fundamental human rights, but in this case there were no discussions” admitted Correa to Folha de Sao Paulo, one of the city’s leading newspapers.

Specifically asked if he would consider a request from Syrian president Asad, Correa said he would address it as that “of any other person which presents a request of that kind”.

And he continued, “as we did with (Julian) Asasange (founder of Wikileaks), as we would do if you present us with a request. We will analyze the request of any citizen that asks for asylum to the Ecuadorean state with full responsibility”

Likewise Correa confirmed that Deputy Foreign minister Faisal al Miqdad was in Quito two weeks ago when he met with diplomatic authorities to thank Ecuador for its ‘objective’ position regarding the current civil war in the country.

Assange has taken refuge at the Ecuadorian embassy in London to prevent extradition to Sweden on sexual abuse charges. The Australian fears that from Sweden he could be sent to the US where he faces the death penalty for revealing state secrets.