A Blog by the Editor of The Middle East Journal

Putting Middle Eastern Events in Cultural and Historical Context

Monday, June 20, 2011

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.

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