Syrian Regime Invites Opposition for July 10 Talks
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime has called members of the opposition and intellectuals for July 10 talks on the wave of protest sweeping the country, the official SANA news agency reported Monday.
"The mechanism put in place recently for the national dialogue will invite the authorities, intellectuals and political personalities to a July 10 meeting to debate in particular amendments to the Constitution, especially Clause 8," it said.
Removing Clause 8, which stipulates the ruling Baath party is the leader of both the Syrian state and society, is one of the demands of the opposition movement.
"Draft laws on a multi-party system, the press and those governing parliamentary and local elections will also be on the agenda," SANA said.
It said the mechanism for national dialogue, presided over by Vice President Farouq al-Sharaa, aimed to "lay down the principles of a dialogue" between all parties in Syria ahead of a national congress.
On June 20, Assad acknowledged in a televised speech that Syria had reached a "turning point," but said dialogue could lead to a new constitution and end Baath party dominance.
"We can say that national dialogue is the slogan of the next stage," Assad said. "The national dialogue could lead to amendments of the constitution or to a new constitution."
Reform was "a total commitment in the interest of the nation," he added in his third speech to the nation since the protests began in mid-March.
Monday's move came after more than 100 dissidents called for a peaceful transition to democracy at a public meeting in the capital that they said was unprecedented in five decades of iron-fisted Baath rule.
27 June 2011, 18:11
01
He is inviting them on July 10th to chop their heads.
This liar will assassinate any one who disagrees with him let alone an opposition who is seeking his ouster.
Does any one believe his tricks???
27 June 2011, 19:23
01
This scum bag believes that people trust his call for dialogue?
Has he ever held his word?
What happened to the million promises he made since his election?
Now the opposition has reached this far in the struggle.
No one should be fooled any more.
It has taken a lot of efforts and many innocent lives to reach here.
He cannot fool any one any more.
Those days are gone....
27 June 2011, 20:42
01
Fake dialogue like the one that Mubarak and Suleiman did in Egypt with the weaker opposition groups to show to the world that there is a transition to 'democracy' going on.
What no one seems to be asking the Assad regime within its supporters is why did it take 40 years to start reforms and the government only started doing this after the people rose up to challenge the government (the so called spies and terrorists) and force them to pretend to surrender certain powers...
27 June 2011, 21:03
01
Another Alawite trap or so they think. The Syrian intellectuals are smarter than accepting such invitation with guns pointed at their head by the Assad clan.
28 June 2011, 10:47
01
The Criminal Assad is inviting the overwhelming majority of the Syrian people in the opposition for talks, in order to identify their leaders and get rid of them. The only negotiation that should take place with this criminal is on the method of his punishment for the thousands of crimes he and his criminal late father committed against his people and the people of Lebanon for the past 4 decades, and the middle east and ultimately the world. He should face the ultimate fate of all despotic criminal Dictators. The same should be the fate of the supreme criminal in Tehran and his wretched 7th century regime from hell.
