(Times-UK) Dean Godson - In a stunning display of the Syrian regime's vulnerability, President Bashar Assad has aborted his visit to this week's meeting of the UN General Assembly. Assad was terrified that he might be indicted while in New York off the back of the inquiry into the killing of Rafiq Hariri, the former Lebanese prime minister, conducted by the chief UN investigator, Detlev Mehlis. The dogged German had already fingered four pro-Syrian Lebanese security officials and is now - with the help of the French and other secret services - following the powder trail all the way back to Damascus. This is likely to bring him very close to Assad himself. There was a second, connected reason for Assad's unwillingness to travel at this time: fear of a coup. Some Baathist old stagers are desperately unhappy with his ineptitude. The Americans certainly want "behavior change," and would shed no tears if Assad fell. The Jordanians and Saudis might not be too unhappy, either: these Sunni monarchies are increasingly fearful of a radical Shia bloc stretching from Iran into Iraq and thence into Syria.
2005-09-13 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive