The Daily Star Editorial

One of the more remarkable features of Syria’s eight-month uprising is the sustained offers of last-chance deals to President Bashar Assad.

On top of numerous and increasingly bellicose denunciations from local and international governments, the Arab League has repeatedly given Syrian authorities additional opportunities to call off their guns, to allow international observers into restive areas and commence tangible and genuine reform.

Thursday saw that latest example of this practice, with the Arab League giving Assad until the end of the week to fulfill obligations set by the organization. Failure to do so, Damascus has been warned, will lead to the study of alternative options, which could include financial sanctions and travel bans for senior administration officials.
The Syrian authorities have reached a dead end. There is simply no time left for procrastination. Even the dovish Arab League, that itself tolerated months of bloodshed in Syria, has appeared to have reached the end of its tether.

If examples of the failure of postponing reforms and embracing the will of the people – what with the 2011 falls of Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, Hosni Mubarak and Moammar Gadhafi – are short, then the Syrian government need only look to the events this week in Yemen. After months of delay tactics, after surviving at least one attempt on his life, and after entirely losing his grip on power and reality, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh finally agreed to hand over control of the country.

He tried for the best part of a year to ignore the demands of his people and those of the international community. Saleh could not hold on indefinitely, but his exit has allowed him to cut his losses and keep his life. There is no guarantee that obstinacy by Syrian officials will be met with such clemency.

Failure to abide by the Arab League’s plan will further damage all of Syria, as well as the interests of those in power. Travelling any further down the road of unrest will cripple the country, leading to the possibility of civil war and international military intervention – an idea mooted already this week by France.

Any higher degree of disarray in a country as inherently divided as Syria will pave the way for additional and prolonged fragmentation and play into the hands of groups to whom chaos is an end within itself. Its neighbors will equally suffer as instability spreads.

It is to be hoped that common sense and dignity prevail, firstly so that the Syrian authorities enact the Arab League plan and secondly so Syria’s opposition can unite and provide a viable alternative to the current government.
There can be no more putting off tough decisions. Now is the final opportunity for Assad to save Syria, not his administration.