POMED’s Daphne McCurdy Interviewed on Syria

POMED’s Senior Research Associate Daphne McCurdy was interviewed by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation on Bashar al-Assad’s recent speech addressing protests in Syria.  McCurdy said the Assad’s speech was an attempt to pacify the unrest by stoking fear of Iraq or Lebanon-style sectarian strife in the ethnically and religiously diverse nation.  She explained that there may be internal divisions within the regime on how to respond to the protests as security forces may have ignored a possible Assad directive to not open fire on protesters.  The regime does not want to be seen as “giving in” to the protesters demands and is not ready to pursue reforms which might explain the lack of real substance in Assad’s speech.  McCurdy also mentioned that the Syrian people view the recent cabinet resignations as superficial concessions and that while people in general were willing to at least listen to Assad’s promised plans for reforms, his speech fell far short of what was desired.

Ms. McCurdy’s interview beings at the 3:48 mark and ends at the 9:15 mark.