BEIRUT, (Reuters) – Syrian President Bashar al-Assad vowed yesterday to strike “terrorists” with an iron fist and derided Arab League efforts to halt violence in a 10-month-old revolt against his rule.
The president’s 100-minute speech, his first public address since June, contained some promises of reform, but no sweeping concessions that might placate an opposition now determined to end more than four decades of domination by the Assad family.
Assad, 46, offered a referendum on a new constitution in March before a multi-party parliamentary election that has been much postponed. Under the present constitution, Assad’s Baath party is designated as “the leader of the state and society”.
But the Syrian leader gave no sign that he was willing to relinquish the power he inherited on his father’s death in 2000.
“I am not someone who abandons responsibility,” he declared.
In the latest bloodshed, Syrian forces shot dead 10 people, most of them anti-Assad protesters, in the eastern city of Deir al-Zor, the opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Gunfire from a checkpoint also killed a man in Homs, it added.
Authorities have barred most independent media from Syria, making it hard to verify accounts by activists or officials.
Assad made scathing remarks about the Arab League, which has sent monitors to check Syria’s compliance with an Arab peace plan after suspending it from the 22-member body in November.
“The Arab League has failed for six decades to take a position in the Arab interest,” he said.
The League condemned an attack on Monday in which 11 of its monitors were hurt by demonstrators in the port city of Latakia, saying Syria had breached its obligation to protect them.
The League said in a statement that the mission was attacked by pro-Assad demonstrators in Latakia and Deir el-Zor cities and by opposition protesters in other areas.
According to a source at the mission’s operations room in Cairo, angry protesters in Latakia broke the glass of the monitors’ vehicles, causing light injuries, although no one was admitted to hospital.
“The monitors were thumped and beaten, which resulted in one monitor’s mouth bleeding and bruises to the faces of four others,” the source told Reuters.
United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan said: “Unfortunately there have been attacks on monitors, especially those from (Gulf) countries, attacks from non-opposition elements.”
“The task of the monitors is getting more difficult every day because we do not see a decline in … killings,” he said.
Syria said it was continuing to provide security for the observers and condemned any act that obstructs their work.
While opting to keep the mission going at least until Jan. 19, the League said on Sunday Syria had not fully implemented an agreement to stop violence, withdraw troops from cities, free prisoners, provide media access and open a political dialogue.
Opposition figures say the monitors have failed to stem the bloodshed, but Russia, an old ally of Assad’s government, said on Tuesday the mission had a stabilising role.
