Assad sends envoys abroad seeking deal with opposition figures: report Tuesday, 17 January 2012
Embattled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has sent envoys abroad in the hope of reaching some kind of deal with opposition leaders to form a unity government, leading French newspaper Le Figaro reported on Tuesday.
Veteran journalist George Malbrunot quoted a Syrian opposition figure as having rejected Assad’s offer to join a unity government. “I refuse to participate in a national unity government because the Assad regime gives me the freedom to form the government but maintains interior and defense ministries,” the unnamed opposition figure said. “I do not want to be held captive as long as the security apparatus still exists.”
Malbrunot reported that Assad had sent two envoys ─ one to Paris and another to Dubai ─ to pursue this option.
Malbrunot also wrote that Russia was working behind the scenes on a resolution that could see President Assad relinquish power to the vice president much like the manner in which outgoing Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh handed power to his deputy.
http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/01/17/188831.html
Maybe Assad is wakening up to the fact that the people want him gone, and that there are no "terrorists".