Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad will remain in office, and has the right to decide to run for reelection next year, Information Minister Omran al-Zoabi said on Tuesday.

Syria's President Bashar al-Assad will remain in office, and has the right to decide to run for reelection next year, Information Minister Omran al-Zoabi said on Tuesday.

"Syria is staying put: the state, the nation, the people and the president. This is the Syrians' choice," Zoabi told journalists.

"All the people call for President Bashar al-Assad to be president of this state, whatever the opposition, the Americans and the traitors say," he added.

Zoabi said it is "the president's right to take a decision" on whether he will run for a new term in mid-2014, when his mandate is set to expire.

In an interview last week with China's state CCTV, Assad had said it was up to the Syrian people to choose whether he would run for election.

In Tuesday's speech, Zoabi said the opposition "does not have the courage to go to the polls", and that "had it had the courage, we would not have reached this point."