HASSAN AL-NOURI knows he has little chance of winning against President Bashar al-Assad in the presidential election on Tuesday.

In the unlikely event that he does beat the Syrian leader, however, the former minister says he will keep Assad to lead the army in the drawn-out civil war.

“I am running against Assad. I do not totally agree with Assad’s way of leadership. But I am not against him in fighting terrorism,” Nouri, 54, a Sunni Muslim, said in an interview with The Sunday Times.

On paper the vote will be a pioneering event — the first such poll for 50 years and the first contested presidential election in Syrian history.

In a break with the past, some posters of Nouri and the other rival