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Assad's Speech May Have Made Things Worse in Syria
(National Post-Canada) Peter Goodspeed - Under mounting international pressure and facing growing street protests, Bashar al-Assad spoke to Syrians for the first time in two months Monday and blamed "saboteurs" backed by foreign powers for widespread unrest. He offered no new concessions to protesters and made only vague reference to possible reforms. Rather than ease tensions, the Syrian President's speech may have made matters worse by deepening the crisis and reinforcing protesters' resolve, James Dorsey, a researcher at Singapore's Middle East Institute, wrote Monday in a blog for Al-Arabiya television.