Assad Addresses Nation, Makes No Serious Reform Promises
Bashar al-Assad Addressing the Parliament (csmonitor.com)
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad addressed the Parliament of the country on Wednesday with a defiant speech that prompted people to call for more action of protest against the regime.
The president called, during this first political address to the nation since the problems began in the country, the unrest in the past two weeks the result of “conspiracies”, which is not unprecedented, considering that the ruling party had called the protests from the start a conspiracy of the “Zionism” against the country.
Even so, the president admitted that not all the protestors were involved in these conspiracies.
Protest in Syria (flickr.com)
Assad also hinted at the lifting the emergency law but failed to explain what exactly the regime would do to implement economic reforms that the people demanded in their protests.
He was relaxed and smiling, delivered an hour-day long speech to a parliament whose members applauded him every few minutes, standing and chanting “God, Syria and Bashar!”
He blamed the slow pace of reforms on the Palestinian Intifada, the 9/11 attacks on America, the wars on Afghanistan and Iraq and the Israel-Hezbollah conflict in 2006.
He also promised measures against corruption, that would enhance the national unity. The resignation of the government, that occurred yesterday, is seen as a first step toward it.
Meanwhile, those involved in protesting the government have already agreed upon a series of demands: a new democratic constitution; the lift of emergency state; release of political prisoners; new political party law; reform of media laws; new elections law; investigation of past abuses on human rights; rights for Syrian Kurds; restructuring of security apparatus.11
