Syria Today | Assad rallies supporters

On January 10, President Bashar al-Assad gave his fourth and most lengthy public address since the crisis began last March.

The speech highlighted the role of the Arabs in the “foreign conspiracy” facing Syria. “Unfortunately, this foreign outside [interference] has become a mix of Arab and foreign parts, and…in many cases, this Arab part is more hostile and worse than the foreign one,” Assad said.  While noting that all Arab countries did not follow identical policies, he accused some of carrying out “what they are asked to do”.

Assad compared the Arab role towards Syria to the previous international interventions in Iraq and Libya, and asked how countries that “do not have the least knowledge of democracy…can advise us about democracy?”

Reactions to the speech varied. President of the Syrian Socialist National Party (SSNP) in Lebanon Asa’ad Hardan told private Syrian daily Al-Watan on January 11 that the speech gave “a full portrait of the Syrian scene”, including both “the internal challenges represented by reform and development, will and strengthening national unity, and the external Western and Arab challenges represented by the attack which targets Syria’s resistance and its national [Arab] options.”

However, erstwhile Lebanese ally Walid Jumblatt told the Lebanese daily The Daily Star on January 17 that calling anti-government protesters terrorists and conspirators would undermine the cause of “all legitimate liberation movements”. He added “it is unjust to consider the children of Dera’a and Hamza Khatib and the rest as terrorists…freedom fighters, activists and citizens…are certainly not terrorists.”

In a press conference in Istanbul on January 10, the exiled opposition Syrian National Council (SNC) called the speech a “total dismissal…of the international community”, Saudi Al-Arabiya news website reported.

Hossein Sabah Zanganeh, the Iranian judiciary chief’s top advisor on international affairs and formerly Iran’s envoy to the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, interpreted the speech as “a sign of change in the security situation in Syria” and “an attempt to open the door for more discussion. The address marks the beginning of a new era, in which the Syrian government will make better decisions to deal with the ten-month crisis,” Iranian daily Teheran Times website reported.

Zanganeh also pointed out that “the Syrian issue illustrates the deep divisions between Arab countries. Turkey’s influence over the AL’s decisions on Syria [is] evidence that it has lost its Arab identity. Moreover, the organisation’s main agenda…is being implemented by Qatar and Saudi Arabia and was actually devised by Washington.”

While YouTube footage showed anti-governemnt protests criticising the speech, two hours after the speech was delivered, pro-Assad protesters in the port city of Latakia assaulted 11 Arab League monitors, a senior league official told CNN. The following day, pro-government rallies took place across the country. In statements to state-run news agency SANA, participants in the gathering said that President Assad’s speech “restored hope and confidence in his strength in the face of the situations in Syria”. They stressed that “the conspiracy targeting Syria has failed despite the pressure and sanctions levelled against it”, and that the speech constitutes “a map for the upcoming stage in which reform plays a strategic role”.