Assad Faces a Critical Moment as Syrians Seek Freedoms, Multiparty System

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad accepted the resignation of his cabinet in advance of a speech, in which he may offer to lift the nation’s emergency la

Syrian Prime Minister Muhammad Naji Otri. Photographer: Fethi Belaid/AFP/Getty Images

w in response to the anti-government protests that pose the most serious challenge to his rule since he inherited power from his father in 2000.
George Jabbour, a former member of parliament, said in a telephone interview from Damascus yesterday that the president is likely to announce a number of measures, including the lifting of the 48-year-old emergency law. Agence France-Presse reported that Assad will address Parliament today, citing an unidentified Syrian official.
“Everyone is waiting to see what he has to say,” said Patrick Seale, who wrote a biography of Assad’s late father, Hafez. “Can he retrieve the situation? Can he win time? I believe he has to do something dramatic if he is to regain the initiative. He has to satisfy the people’s most urgent demands.”
Assad accepted Prime Minister Muhammad Naji Otri’s resignation, state television reported yesterday. The resignation by the cabinet does not affect Assad, who asked the government to manage affairs until a new cabinet is formed.
The move follows promises by the regime to expand freedom and enact pay increases, which failed to quell the protests. More than 90 people have been killed in the government crackdown on dissent, according to unconfirmed reports cited by Amnesty International.

Waiting on Reforms

“The resignation of the government in itself is not really a radical step,” said Chris Phillips, an analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit in London. “The question is whether or not this will be followed by a set of reforms and I think most people will wait to see.”
Syria, where Assad’s Baath party has been in power since 1963, is the latest Middle Eastern country to be hit by a wave of uprisings that ousted longtime rulers in Egypt and Tunisia, and sparked an armed conflict in Libya. Assad’s regime is an ally of Iran and a power broker in neighboring Lebanon, where it supports the Shiite Muslim Hezbollah movement. The country ranks 152 in the Economist Intelligence Unit’s 2010 Democracy Index, below Afghanistan. Continued