Asad Speaks Again

UPDATE: Josh Landis at Syria Comment aggregates a lot of commentary about the speech.

Bashar al-Asad has made another national speech promising vague reforms  but also taking a hard line on protesters. The Arabist offers first reactions to the speech, while Josh Landis takes a look at Turkey's role.

Despite growing warnings from Western countries as well as Turkey, this still seems far from any kind of end game, at least as far as I can tell.There are reports which suggest there was heavy fighting in Jisr al-Shughur last week, which may go to the question I addressed cautiously last week as to whether what is going on in northern Syria is an armed uprising, rather than merely peaceful protests.