State TV Reports Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to Address Parliament Today

[Hissyspit]

Source: Reuters

Syria's Assad to give speech to parliament: state TV

Sun Jun 3, 2012 2:57am EDT

BEIRUT (Reuters) - President Bashar al-Assad will deliver a speech to Syria's parliament later on Sunday, state television said.

Assad has made few public appearances during the 15-month uprising against his rule, which started as mainly peaceful protests but has become increasingly militarized.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSBRE85202Q20120603?irpc=932

[dipsydoodle]

1. Syria president blames 'outside forces' for crisis

BEIRUT (AP) -- Syria's president says his country is facing a "real war" and he blames outside forces for driving the crisis.

President Bashar Assad is speaking to parliament Sunday as the country appears to be spiraling toward civil war.

He said the country is passing through its most critical stage since the end of colonialism.

His message was similar to previous speeches, in which he blamed terrorists for the country's uprising. The revolt began last March.

Jun 3, 4:35 AM EDT http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/ML_SYRIA?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-06-03-04-35-30

[tabatha]

2. Twitter reaction

Omar Ghraieb ‏@Omar_Gaza
70 minutes of sheer idiocy, hypocrisy, falseness, delusion, time-wasting, disgusting, meaningless, outrageous speech! thx 2 #AssadButcher

Homsi Anarchist ‏@HomsiAnarchist
Be Ali: Damn teenagers! Mubarak: Damn teenagers! Gaddafi: Damn drug addicted teenagers! Assad: Damn unemployed teenagers! #AssadSpeech

Syria's Human Rights ‏@HRSyria
While Assad lectures people on nationalism on TV, his forces are destroying the oldest church in the World. #Syria
http://twitter.com/HRSyria/status/209206782210473984/photo/1

Hama: Maar Zaf: Several young men were detained at a checkpoint of the regime's army in the town, they were attacked and beaten, during Bashar Al-Assad's speech

Mouhanad Abdulhamid ‏@MouhanadSYR
PIC Live Demo during ‪#AsaadSpeech‬ making fun of him! ‪#Syria‬ pic.twitter.com/t9hMqUdM

Susan Shephard ‏@Lost4DrJack
"We must cleanse this idea of violence from the heads of our young people." Yeah, by blowing them off, you psycho-fuck. #AssadSpeech #Syria

[may3rd]

3. nice post . Here are some bytes from the speech

I'm sure the speech was in response to the recent UN demands made of him.

Assad blames unrest on foreign plot in TV speech
....
"The masks have fallen and the international role in the Syrian events is now obvious," Assad said in his first address to the assembly since a May 7 parliamentary election, adding the polls were the perfect response "to the criminal killers and those who finance them".
.....
"We are not facing a political problem but a project to destroy the country," Assad said, adding there will be "no dialogue" with opposition groups which "seek foreign intervention."

"Syria is open to all Syrians regardless of their views, but terrorism can not be part of the political process and we must fight against terrorism to heal the nation," Assad said, dismissing the impact in Syria of uprisings sweeping the Arab world.
........
Chapter VII outlines action the Security Council might take, including military force, in response to threats to international peace, breaches of the peace and acts of aggression.

Tensions from Syria have also spilled across into neighbouring Lebanon, where clashes between pro- and anti-Damascus gunmen left 14 dead and 48 wounded over the weekend in the northern city of Tripoli, security officials said.
......

Because of the worsening violence and Assad's failure to meet commitments under an agreed peace plan, the United States has warned that it may not agree to renew the UN observer mission when its mandate expires on July 20.

http://www.france24.com/en/20120603-assad-blames-foreign-plot-unrest-speech-parliament-televised-syria-un-houla

The UN has informed Assad he will have to fight to the bitter end so, like all dictators, he will play out his hand and that would include actions of 'assets' in Lebanon


Future: Assad hasn’t given up on setting Lebanon on fire
...

“What happened in Tripoli on Saturday clearly demonstrates that (Syrian president Bashar al ) Assad has not given up on setting Lebanon on fire, but in the end he is bound to fail.”
...
http://www.yalibnan.com/2012/06/03/future-assad-hasnt-given-up-on-setting-lebanon-on-fire/

?
Will Lebanon invite "foreign troops" in as an international coalition buffer ? There is a nice faciility along the shore south of Tripoli

[Iliyah]

4. As a true dictator and reminds me of what the GOP would say as well

blame someone else for what you are "in your face" is doing.

Sounds like a playbook - what Karlllllllll Roveeeeeeee would do.

[riderinthestorm]

5. Well, that just confirms my fears that Assad is seeing this as a sectarian fight to the end

A bitter end. With the UN basically telling him he'll be executed if he capitulates, he has every motivation to cast this as a religious battle of Shia v Sunni, with him as the heroic martyr if it comes to an execution - and Israel thrown in for good measure to massively flame the fires of war. If he is killed, his death will be the motivator for a regional bloodbath that will make the current tragic deaths look like a tempest in a teapot.

Its interesting only in that he is now on record. Its what most of us have assumed was his position but now its official. Hopefully those who have tried to cast this fight as a simplistic "Arab Spring" type of revolution will begin to see (some of) the real and very dangerous complications.

Bitter, hard days ahead.

[David__77]

6. Video footage...

I wonder if this is the new people's assembly based on the elections that were held recently. It is or will be the first assembly with representatives outside the ruling National Progressive Front. The building itself is beautiful.

The speech itself merely reiterates points/claims that have repeatedly made. Syria's government would be wise to attempt to open talks with the opposition NCB through Russia as a mediator.

[may3rd]

7. preaching to the choir

Does he know those that want regime change will eventually get their way ?
The propaganda is everywhere and those that criticize Basher should also allow him his soap box time . I did and for some reason I thought of the Munich Agreement while I listened to him. Syria today is after all a post Ottoman country,
but I digress

I like to give equal time to the other side. The US media has to please their advertisers and it's good to take a walk about concerning matters so far from our own shores .
This is a link from Iran;

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/05/13/241086/saudi-auction-suicide-bombers-syria/

Take it with a grain of salt but I do know as many others that Saudi jails were emptied and inmates were given safe passage to Iraq to purify themselves and make the ultimate sacrifice to their god .
I'm just saying, how many suicide bombers hit Syria in the last year and how many were there in the previous decade ?

[geek tragedy]

8. Assad resembles one figure from the Munich Agreement

and that figure was neither Czech nor Slovak.

[David__77]

9. Not certain you're referring to Germany...

But, if you are, Assad would certainly not resemble Hitler, in my opinion. Perhaps, in the most tenuous of ways, Rudolf Hess.