Syria Opposition Attempts To Mobilize For Weekend Protest

February 1, 2011

01 Feb 2011

UPDATE: Syria Opposition Attempts To Mobilize For Weekend Protest

Tuesday, Feb 01, 2011

DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

Opposition movements in Syria are using social networking sites to mobilize for

mass protests this weekend against the rule of President Bashar Al-Assad, taking

inspiration from Egypt and Tunisia, in the latest sign of how dissent is

spreading through the region.

Protest groups are organizing on social networking websites Facebook and

Twitter, with several pages calling for " day of rage " protests in the capital

Damascus, the northern city of Aleppo, and other regions on Friday and Saturday.

It is unclear how many people will attend the protests but one of the

groups--Syrian Revolution 2011--has gathered 8,958 members, although a

significant amount are likely outside Syria.

Like Egypt and Tunisia, Syria suffers from unemployment, poverty and corruption,

although the one-party political system and government-controlled media widely

inherited by President Assad from his late father Hafez al-Assad in 1999 is seen

by many as more rigid.

That has stoked speculation in Western capitals over whether Syria could also

face unrest, with some diplomats and analysts considering it could serve as a

barometer for the direction of the broader Middle East.

Damascus's influence has grown in recent years as its alliance with Iran and the

militant Islamist organizations Hamas and Hezbollah has opened the door to its

renewed influence in Lebanon, the Palestinian territories and Iraq.

President Assad, who inherited a regime that has held power for four decades,

has resisted calls for political freedoms and jailed critics of his regime, but

said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal published Monday that he will

push for more political reforms in his country, underlining how a series of

revolts that began in Tunisia in January is forcing leaders across the region to

rethink their approaches.

President Assad said the protests in Egypt, Tunisia and Yemen are ushering in a

" new era " in the Middle East, and that Arab rulers would need to do more to

accommodate their people's rising political and economic aspirations.

" If you didn't see the need of reform before what happened in Egypt and Tunisia,

it's too late to do any reform, " Assad said.

-By Joe Parkinson, Dow Newswires, +90 ;

joe.parkinson@...

(END) Dow Newswires

01-02-11 1646GMT

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