Guardian: Al-Assad Displays Remarkable Staying Power, Regime Resilient

Local Editor

The British Guardian daily reported Thursday that "one of the enduring features of the Syrian crisis is that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has proved far more resilient than many imagined."

In its report entitled: "...Al-Assad Displays Remarkable Staying Power," the daily mentioned that "journalists and commentators have spent the past two years negotiating a landscape strewn with propaganda, illusions and substantial doses of wishful thinking, finally to grasp that he has real staying power."

According to the report, The president still has loyal, powerful allies, as [Hizbullah Secretary General His Eminence Sayyed]Hassan Nasrallah, made clear on Tuesday... Russia and Iran - "real friends" - would not let al-Assad fall.
"Syria illustrates a sort of Middle Eastern Murphy's law - anything that can make things worse invariably happens: massacres, refugees fleeing to Jordan, tensions in Lebanon and Iraq, the use of chemical weapons, the risk of conflict with "Israel"," it added.

However, the Guardian lamented that "diplomacy is non-existent. No one believes in a negotiated solution. Syria is being destroyed."
Al-Assad insisted from the start that his country is facing not a popular uprising for democracy and freedom, but "armed terrorist gangs" financed by Saudi Arabia and Qatar and supposedly allied with the US, Turkey and "Israel".

"Foreign friends apart, regime resilience is still part of the big picture. Military gains have been made in counter-attacks near Idlib and Damascus and rebel supply lines hit hard," the daily affirmed.

Academic Thomas Pierret emphasized the "kin-based/sectarian character of the military" and the absence, still, of significant defections from the Alawite hard core of the army and security forces.

Syrians point out that the Assad family prepared for this crisis for decades, internally and externally. The president and his men talk of fighting to save the country and of elections in May 2014.

Source: The Guardian, Edited by moqawama.org