Defiant Assad spells out peace initiatives

A defiant-sounding President Bashar al-Assad addressed Syrians in a rare public speech and proposed a new constitution and cabinet to resolve the country’s 21-month uprising. He ignored the opposition’s demand for him to step down and instead justified his military crackdown. “Everyone who comes to Syria knows that Syria accepts advice but not orders,” Assad said, following the visit the week before of United Nations envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, who tried to push for a negotiated solution to the Syrian conflict. More than 600,000 have died in protests and demonstrations that sought the removal of Assad from office. Assad has framed these protests as attacks by puppets of foreign supporters like Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the US. He made no apology for the arrest of peaceful activists or airstrikes that have destroyed neighborhoods. Neither was there mention of elections before his term ends in 2014.


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