FRI 29 - 3 - 2024
 
Date: Jun 21, 2011
Source: The Daily Star
Assad speech met with skepticism

BEIRUT: The United States, Turkey and the European Union increased the pressure on Bashar Assad Monday to speed up promised reforms following the Syrian president’s highly anticipated third national address since the start of political unrest in the country in mid-March.


Facing a deepening political crisis and with protests spreading despite a military crackdown that has killed more than 1,300 people, Assad made a televised address in which he said a national dialogue would start soon to review new legislation including laws on parliamentary elections as early as August, draft a new media law, and allow political parties other than the Baath Party, as well as look at possible changes to the constitution.


He made clear he would not be leaving in response to protests’ demands, claiming “saboteurs” among the protesters were serving a foreign conspiracy to sow chaos. Assad also called on refugees who have already crossed the frontier to come home.
In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said of the speech that what was needed in Syria was “action, not words.”


She noted that Assad blamed foreign instigators for Syria’s upheaval, “rather than appreciating that his own people are simply disgusted by a regime that supports itself through repression, corruption and fear.”
She also reported that Ambassador Robert Ford, U.S. envoy to Damascus, headed Monday to northern Syria to investigate events in what has been the bloodiest recent zone of resistance and crackdown in the country.


With up to 10,000 refugees fleeing across the northern border into Turkey in recent weeks, the two countries’ relations have severely strained Turkey’s policy of “zero problems with neighbors” under which it has befriended the Middle East’s entrenched autocratic rulers while presenting itself as a champion of democracy.


A senior Turkish official said Sunday that Assad had less than a week to start implementing long-promised political reforms before “foreign intervention” begins, although he did not specify what this might mean.
On Monday, Turkish President Abdullah Gul said in a speech that Assad’s proposals were “not enough,” and that he should transform Syria into a multiparty democracy.


“Assad should clearly and precisely say: ‘Everything has changed. We’re transforming the system into a multiparty one. Everything will be organized according to the Syrian’s people will, and I will be carrying out this process,’” Gul said, in the latest sign Turkey is losing patience with its former ally.


The Arab League, which had been largely silent on Syria, came out in strong support of Assad, its deputy secretary-general, Ahmad bin Heli, an Algerian, saying Syria was a “main factor of balance and stability in the region.” He said the league rejects any foreign intervention in its affairs – a reference to Western efforts to push through a condemnatory resolution at the U.N. Security Council and to expand economic sanctions already imposed on some in the Syrian leadership.


Following a Luxembourg meeting Monday, EU foreign ministers said they were preparing such new penalties, but announced none, as they condemned the worsening violence in Syria in the strongest language.


Meanwhile Russian President Dmitry Medvedev practically ruled out Moscow backing any U.N. resolution condemning Assad’s crackdown on pro-democracy protesters. In an interview published Monday in the Financial Times, Medvedev criticized the way Western countries had interpreted U.N. Resolution 1973 on Libya, which he said turned it into “a scrap of paper to cover up a pointless military operation,” adding that he “would not like a Syrian resolution to be pulled off in a similar manner.”


The Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, speaking ahead of the EU meeting, said Assad had a last chance to “concretely start reforms,” but added that many people were losing hope.
“So far we have been looking at horrible crimes … Police shooting civilians in the streets … This is absolutely unacceptable,” Frattini told reporters.


British Foreign Secretary William Hague dubbed the speech “unconvincing,” EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton was “disappointed,” and Germany’s Guido Westerwelle labelled him “incorrigible.”
While in Luxemborg, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said: “Some believe that there’s still time for him to change his ways and commit to a [reform] process. For my part, I doubt it. I think that the point of no return has been reached.”

 



 
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