In an effort to save his 11-year rule against a growing popular uprising, Syria’s President Bashar Al-Assad said Monday, June 20, that he would seek to launch a national dialogue and initiate reforms that could lead to a new constitution. “We can say that national dialogue is the slogan of the next stage,” Assad said in a televised speech at Damascus University cited by Agence France-Press (AFP).
“The national dialogue could lead to amendments of the constitution or to a new constitution.”
Feeling the growing pressure over his brutal suppression of anti-regime protests, Assad said his country was at a “turning point,” and vowed Syria would emerge stronger from the “plotting” against it.
He insisted that a reform process in Syria was “a total commitment in the interest of the nation.”
Offering his condolences to the families of “martyrs” from the unrest rocking the country since mid-March, Assad said there could be “no development without stability, no reform in the face of sabotage and chaos.”
“We make a distinction between those (with legitimate grievances) and the saboteurs who represent a small group which has tried to exploit the goodwill of the Syrian people for its own ends.”
The speech, the third by Assad since the protests broke out, was punctuated by applause from the invited audience.
Assad also called on the on the 10,000 people who fled the military crackdown through the northwestern areas to Turkey to come home.
“There are those who give them the impression that the state will exact revenge. I affirm that is not true. The army is there for security,” he was quoted by Reuters as saying in the speech.
Assad said he hoped the package of reforms should be ready by September if parliamentary elections went ahead as scheduled in two months’ time, which will be decided during the dialogue.
“The parliamentary elections, if they are not postponed, will be held in August. We will have a new parliament by … August and I think we can say that we are able to accomplish this package (of reforms) … in September,” he said.
Authorities blame the violence on armed groups and Islamists, backed by foreign powers.
Syrian rights groups say at least 1,300 civilians have been killed and 10,000 people detained since March.
Protests
Assad’s speech, however, sparked protests in the northern city of Aleppo, in the flashpoint province of Idlib in the northwest.
“The regime has no realization that this is a mass street movement demanding freedom and dignity,” opposition figure Walid al-Bunni told Reuters.
“Assad has not said anything to satisfy the families of the 1,400 martyrs or the national aspiration of the Syrian people for the country to become a democracy.”
Hassan Abdel-Azim, a lawyer and another opposition figure, said the speech failed to specify concrete steps such as the army’s withdrawal from population centers.
“There were a lot of ideas in the speech. But the withdrawal of the army and security forces was not raised, which is not very reassuring and puts the emphasis on a military solution,” Abdel-Azim said.
Head of the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahman, said protestors in Aleppo took to the streets after the speech and “condemned the speech which branded them as saboteurs, extremists.
“The demonstrators are calling for freedom and dignity,” he told AFP.
The European Union, meanwhile, was preparing to expand sanctions against Assad’s regime, according to a draft resolution to be adopted by foreign ministers on Monday.
The EU has been looking at adding firms and a dozen people to a blacklist of 23 people targeted by an asset freeze and travel ban which already includes Assad and key allies.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague said the international community was looking for Assad to “respond to legitimate grievances” of his people, insisting “Assad should reform or step aside.”
The violence has also challenged Turkey’s foreign policy of “zero problems with neighbors”.
A senior Turkish official said on Sunday that Assad has less than a week to start implementing long-promised political reforms before foreign intervention begins.
Source: OnIslam & News Agencies
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