Twitter
Advertisement

Street protests in Syria after Bashar al-Assad speech

Protesters took to the streets across Syria on Monday to denounce a speech by Assad they said did not meet popular demands for sweeping political change, activists and witnesses said.

Latest News
article-main
FacebookTwitterWhatsappLinkedin

Protesters took to the streets across Syria on Monday to denounce a speech by President Bashar al-Assad they said did not meet popular demands for sweeping political change, activists and witnesses said.

"No to dialogue with murderers," chanted 300 protesters in the Damascus suburb of Irbin, a witness told Reuters by telephone, with the slogans echoing in the background.

In a speech at Damascus University dominated aby security concerns, Assad accused "saboteurs" among protesters demanding and end to his 11-year rule of serving a foreign conspiracy to sow chaos.

Under mounting international pressure and facing wider street protests despite a military crackdown that has killed more than 1,300 people, Assad, from Syria's minority Alawite sect, said political reforms he had launched since the 3-month uprising would stabilise the country and diffuse grievances.

But in the Sunni Sleibeh and Raml al-Filistini districts of the mixed coastal city of Latakia, where several Sunni neighbourhoods have been surrounded by troops and armour for weeks, protesters chanted "liar, liar".

"People were still hoping he would say something meaningful that would result in tanks and troops leaving the streets. They were disappointed and started going out as soon as Assad finished talking," one activist in Latakia said.

In the city of Hama, scene of a 1982 attack to crush an uprising led by the Muslim Brotherhood that killed thousands of civilians during the rule of Assad's father, Hafez al-Assad, protesters chanted "damn your soul, Hafez".

Demonstrations also took place in the eastern city of Albu Kamal on the border with Iraq, the southern city of Deraa and other towns in the Hauran Plain, cradle of the uprising, now in its fourth month, and at the campus of Aleppo University, activists said.

Find your daily dose of news & explainers in your WhatsApp. Stay updated, Stay informed-  Follow DNA on WhatsApp.
Advertisement

Live tv

Advertisement
Advertisement