Reuters Two defiant appearances by President Bashar Al-Assad in as many days show the Syrian leader's confidence that he can lead his country out of bloodshed and turmoil, but will do nothing to sway opponents seeking, and expecting, his downfall. The carefully projected image of a relaxed, popular and powerful leader failed to deflect opponents demanding his overthrow and foreign powers who say his bloody crackdown on 10 months of protest has robbed him of any right to rule Syria. “His speech implied a complete denial of reality in terms of what is unfolding around him,” said Julien Barnes-Dacey, senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. “There is a sense of ongoing delusion which is perhaps common to autocratic leaders in the Arab Awakening moment,” he said, referring to the wave of uprisings which have overthrown three Arab leaders and inspired Syrian protesters. After 10 months of unrest in which thousands have died, Syria's economy is shrinking rapidly, crippled by a Western embargo on its oil exports and huge disruption to trade and business. The Arab League has suspended Damascus and announced its own sanctions on Syria, leaving Assad ever more isolated. The United Nations says more than 5,000 people have been killed in the crackdown on protests, and that the killings have accelerated since the arrival of Arab League monitors two weeks ago to oversee a plan aimed at halting the bloodshed. Hilal Khashan, a political science professor at the American University in Beirut, said Assad hoped to crush the opposition before any elections were held. But he predicted the Syrian leader would not survive the year in power. “He is a slaughtered chicken,” Khashan said. “What he said (on Tuesday) could have been a recipe to stay in power had he done that in the beginning of the crisis”. “Not any more. So much blood has been spilt and people are not calling for reforms. They are demanding his ouster”. Ayham Kamel of the Eurasia Group political risk consultancy said Assad was “trying to capitalize on the mood in Syria, to appeal to his support base ... and moderate Syrians, not the opposition.” Assad's parliamentary election timetable has continued to slip and his latest target of May or June was another three-month delay. But Kamel said that by waiting until after a new constitution is approved, Syrians might vote in a poll which does not guarantee victory to the ruling Baath Party. At the same time the crackdown against dissent in rebellious regions such as Homs and Idlib would grow more violent, he said. “Absent reforms, violence alone will not work,” he said. Assad's opponents dismissed Tuesday's speech almost as soon as he finished delivering it. The leader of the main opposition Syrian National Council, Burhan Ghalioun, said Assad was still determined to portray the uprising as a “terrorist conspiracy”. __
