Guest post by DaveM
On 21st August, as a UN humanitarian team visited Syria, Bashar al Assad gave an interview on State TV to discuss the situation in the country.
I tried watching it but gave up very soon after because even after all the time and effort I put into learning Arabic, I just couldn’t make any sense whatsoever of what he was saying.
I could hear words but just couldn’t put them together to form anything vaguely coherent. It sounded like a series of random non-sequiturs which didn’t actually lead anywhere.
The following day both Now Lebanon and MEMRI translated parts of the interview into English
And it still makes no sense at all.
Here’s how it was received in Bab As-Saba’ in Homs. They’re shouting “Get out!”
In fact a few weeks ago Spain sent a special envoy to Syria to try and convince Assad to go into exile, thus ending the bloodshed. He was unsuccessful and described his experience to El Pais:
“My impression is that [Assad] will not compromise on anything substantial,” envoy Bernardino Leon said on his return.
El Pais also quoted the envoy as saying, “My [Syrian] interlocutors were totally detached from reality.”
That’s a perfect description of Bashar Al Assad and the rest of the Syrian leadership.
Michael Weiss notes that Assad can’t be blind to what’s happening in Libya and must know sooner or later it’s his turn.
When it comes to reality nobody can opt out of it forever. Eventually it catches up with us all, Assad included.
Gene adds: As NPR’s Kelly McEvers reports, the Syrian regime couldn’t even successfully manage an orchestrated propaganda tour for journalists.
And The Guardian reports:
The Syrian government’s attempts to whitewash evidence of a brutal crackdown on the country’s five-month uprising appeared to backfire on Monday after a visiting UN humanitarian delegation was met by protesters waving SOS signs.
Hundreds of demonstrators in Homs, which has had tanks on the streets and snipers on the roofs for weeks, surrounded the UN car in the central New Clock square, shouting for the overthrow of the regime and holding up the signs, according to video footage and local residents.