Syria's President Assad addresses nation like 'society of ophthalmologists'
One thing at least can be said in favour of President Bashar al-Assad's speech to the Syrian people. It did not dash any raised expectations, for there were none.
After two previous speeches which promised but failed to set a timetable for reform, the news that a third was to be attempted meant little to the thousands of Syrians voting with their feet at the Turkish border.
So when Mr Assad reiterated, in a speech lasting more than an hour, the same mantra as before – that he was a reformist, but that there could be no reform before "stability" had been assured – it came as little surprise.
He also proffered the same tired explanation for the protests against his rule put forward by so many Arab leaders this year, whatever their geopolitical alignment.
They were, he said, the work of "foreign elements".
The failure of his troops to find foreigners among the thousands of dead, injured and arrested, and the excuse's proven uselessness across the Middle East as a means of preventing further demonstrations, does not seem to have been an issue for him.
What will engage the interest of those trying to fathom what will happen next in this most intractable of all the Arab Spring uprisings was the way in which he spoke.
Mr Assad, the ophthalmologist second son of the 30-year Syrian dictator, Hafez al-Assad, has been assumed by friends and foes alike to be slightly uneasy with power.
It was not his birthright, as he only assumed the position of heir after the death of his older brother, and in interviews before the uprising began preferred to be seen wearing jeans and playing games with his children than wielding the tokens of absolute power.
Who would have expected such a man, when his future was under threat and his henchmen had killed hundreds, to appear so relaxed?
With his personable delivery, his occasional smiles, his nods to all sides of the argument, he could indeed have been addressing a society of ophthalmologists, rather than regime loyalists.
But if Mr Assad is confident of seeing out the opposition, at least for now, he may not be entirely deluded. A regime that is prepared to kill significant numbers of its own people, like China in 1989, can stay in power longer than most people think, in the absence of outside intervention.
As both Russia and China have made clear, the chances of such intervention in Syria's case are at this moment negligible. The only active foreign support is on Mr Assad's side, rather than against him, coming from over the border in Iran.
And Iran, too, has shown that a regime armed with manic self-confidence can face down the most concerted of efforts to displace it.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...-nation-like-society-of-ophthalmologists.html
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