Bashar al-Assad donning the abaya. Photo: Youtube

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad met this week with a group of regime-friendly Jordanian activists, one of whom is a psychologist who gave the embattled leader a clean bill of mental health.

“Assad is in tune with reality, as opposed to what Western media claims,” Rawiya al-Burano told Syrian media.

“He looked calm and assured us that the crisis in Syria will end,” al-Burano added.

A member of the Jordanian delegation, Darrem al-Halasa, posted on his Facebook page that during the meeting, the Syrian president said: “The Syrian people should agree unconditionally to a general plan the main points of which we’ve established in the political platform that is part of the national dialogue (with the opposition).”

The meeting caused a stir in Jordan  with the  Muslim Brotherhood and Jordanian revolutionaries leveling harsh criticism at the delegation’s cooperation with Assad, specifically referring to the placing of a traditional robe (abaya) on Assad’s shoulders, an act which serves as a token of appreciation.

Tuesday United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said that the death toll in Syria is probably approaching 70,000.

Watch  the video below of Assad meeting the Jordanian delegation: