By Nabil Mulhem
Damascus – Albawaba.com
Syrian authorities issued to press agencies Sunday a statement on the late president Hafez Assad’s funeral services, scheduled for Tuesday.
An earlier statement was withdrawn shortly after it reached the hands of the press “for changes to be made” on the schedule of the late President Hafez Assad’s farewell procedures.
Assad died Saturday noon of a heart attack, and an array of world leaders have announced they would attend the event.
The statement said that the coffin of the late president will be carried on shoulders from his residence, where he lived for the past 30 years, to the Umayyad Square down town Damascus, where the people could bid farewell to the president.
After that, Assad’s body will be taken on a cannon vehicle to the airport, where it will be boarded on a private plane to Latakia, before arriving at Assad’s birthplace, Kerdaha.
At this north coastal town, funeral prayers will be performed at the mosque named after Assad’s mother, Naesaa, who died in 1995. Guest leaders and delegations, and prominent Syrians will have the last look on the leader who has been a key player in the Middle East scene.
After Assad is laid to rest at the family’s cemetery, condolences will be offered to the president’s son, Bashar, and his male brothers at a large tent set for that purpose.
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
