Assad Says Public Support Assures He Will Continue to Lead Syria

[maddezmom]

Source: NYT

Published: July 9, 2012

BEIRUT, Lebanon – President Bashar al-Assad of Syria said in an interview on German television that public support for his rule meant he would remain in office, and maintained that victims of violence among government supporters, including the military, outnumbered those among civilians killed in the Syria conflict.

The interview came in tandem with a visit by Kofi Annan, the special envoy on Syria for the United Nations and the Arab League, to Damascus for talks on Monday about rescuing his six-point peace plan from oblivion. Afterward he flew to Iran, Mr. Assad's most important regional ally.

In Damascus, Mr. Annan told reporters that he had reached an agreement with Mr. Assad on an approach to end the violence, but he did not provide any details.

"We discussed the need to end the violence and ways and means of doing so," Mr. Annan said. "We agreed on an approach which I will share with the armed opposition. I also stressed the importance of moving ahead with a political dialogue which the president accepts."



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/10/world/middleeast/bashar-al-assad-meets-with-kofi-annan.html?pagewanted=all

[Drale]

1. I am honestly surprised that he is still alive

I would have thought that the rebels would have taken him out somehow by now or that one of his own men would have turned on him.

[PatrynXX]

4. I'm surprised

someone hasn't gotten to his wife. (smuggle her out of the country and try her for high crimes) like in Britain

[David__77]

7. It no simple matter for an angry mob to kill a head of state.

There are a lot of angry mobs around the world, but they rarely succeed in killing a head of state. In Libya, such a murder did occur.

[pampango]

2. "Public support" = tanks on the street n/t

[Comrade Grumpy]

3. There is no denying that Assad does have popular support.

But he also has a large segment of the population who want to see him dead.

The country is deeply, bitterly, perhaps irrevocably divided.

[bemildred]

5. Hmmmm, he must be losing public support.

That which must be fended off must be somewhat true.

Sort of like when the Pubbies attack O for doing something or other, then you know they are REALLY mad because he did it better than they did.

[pampango]

6. Video of the Assad interview on German TV

&feature=player_embedded

[David__77]

8. Either he's smarter than I give him credit for, or his heart's not in this.

His posturing for reform, for dialogue with an enemy that only wants him dead, his pleas of anti-sectarianism, his constant references to legality - all of it strikes me as symbolic of the fact that he is not his father, and lacks the real motivation of maintain the existing state with himself at its lead. Or, maybe he has no such authority anyway. There are those in the state more influential than Assad. Finally, it is possible that this is a well-laid strategy, to maintain support from Russia, Iran, and many Lebanese, while neutralizing much of the developing world.