Under some pressure for its part in the assassination of Rafiq Hariri, the Syrian regime can at least count on popular support at home:
Damascus tried to fight back last week by organising a series of protests, but they fell rather flat. Billed in the state-controlled media as a spontaneous outpouring of national pride by hundreds of thousands, television could not hide the fact that fewer than 10,000 people, mostly state employees or members of the Ba’ath party students’ union, took to the streets.
The protest was anything but spontaneous. “I am here to stand for my country against US pressure,” said Lara Ali, a young sociology student and Ba’ath party member. Like other users of Syriatel, the mobile network owned by Rami Makhlouf, the president’s first cousin, she admitted that she had received a text message urging her to participate in “a demonstration supporting the national attitude”.
Other demonstrators had an even more ambivalent attitude. “We hate America! We hate America!” shouted a fellow student, before he realised that the television footage might be shown in the West. “I love America! I love America!” he then shouted, to laughs from friends. With that kind of support from supposed regime stalwarts, Assad has a tough week ahead.