By Daily Star Editorial  

The latest round of sanctions slapped on President Bashar Assad by the European Union Monday should make clear to the Syrian leader and his inner circle just what kind of future awaits the Syrian regime if it continues to answer its citizens’ protests with repression instead of reform.
When the first demonstrations began in mid-March, the regime raised some hopes with official announcements declaring a raft of measures to enhance the peoples’ rights and freedoms, such as allowing the establishment of new political parties, freedom of the press and the lifting of the country’s emergency law. The protesters – and the world – received the names of a committee that would supposedly draft a new constitution.

Today, however, the regime’s response has amounted to some 1,000 dead Syrians and the utter absence of real reform. The regime’s crackdown has escalated, as the numbers of arrested continue to spiral upward and the tally of the dead rises.
Assad and his coterie need to realize, though, what this choice means for the future of their nation. Syria would find itself sliding into deeper and deeper international isolation. Even friends such as Turkey are stepping away from the regime, not to mention the harsher steps taken by Western countries which were still trying to engage the regime when the protests began, countries such as France sand even the U.S.

To be sure, the Arab and broader international community have given Assad a wide berth to suppress the demonstrations, but their patience is running out and negative repercussions will soon be rippling through Damascus. Arab countries are indeed displaying a tacit approval of the crackdown, but they are doing for so for their own ulterior, personal motives, and Syria will not escape icy treatment from them, either.
The dynamic taking shape is that more violence by the Syrian regime and more dead protesters will only lead to more sanctions, isolation and the thinning out of the ranks of Assad’s allies.

The way out of this vicious circle lies only in Assad himself steeping forward to engage sincerely with the people and their demands. He needs to prove that he accepts that the peoples’ aspirations are legitimate and will be addressed. He must show that his and his regime can recognize differing political positions without resorting to the labels of enemies and conspirators.
The Syrian president also needs to send a message to the international community that he deserves the latitude he has been given to preserve his rule.

The alternative of ongoing violent repression of the citizens will only harm the country’s and the regime’s interests. The people have proved that they will not be intimidated and will not settle for anything but the fulfillment of their desire for reform. For Assad, bullets are futile – they can keep the regime in place, but they will also make it a pariah.