The Syrian crisis continues to swell. And the government of President Bashar Assad continues to try to stop the protests in several parts of the country. The Minister of the Asad Buthayna Chaabane, friendly face of the regime and to the press spokesman, acknowledged in an interview to the English edition of Al Jazeera that the government lift the state of emergency imposed after the 1963 coup.
Buthayna, which has not detailed the timetable for implementing the measure, undertaken during a press conference this week that they were considering the repeal of this rule, along with other reforms to curb corruption and raise the salaries of officials. Yesterday, in a new gesture failed to appease the revolt, the government released 260 Islamist prisoners.
Instead, the protests spread to the coastal zone of the country. Deraa, the southern city where the protest was born, lived another day of demonstrations and the Baath party headquarters and a police station were set ablaze. In nearby Tafas, a crowd came to the funeral of three of the dead on Friday after police shootings and also burned the headquarters of the Baath.
In Latakia, capital of the province's native Asad and a strong presence Alawi formed a march against the regime. The state agency SANA reported in this port city killed 12 people in the past two days. Syria did not live a week so bloody since 1982, when an Islamist rebellion caused dozens of deaths and the subsequent government crackdown left between 10,000 and 20,000 bodies in the city of Hama.
So far, no shots of the security forces and the promises to end corruption and political oppression, alleviating served Bashar Asad to regain control of the situation. The Government of El Asad insisted in saying that the deaths recorded during the week (more than 100 according to various Syrian hospital sources, at least 55 according to Amnesty International) had not been shot by police, but the mysterious "foreign armed groups" disguised with uniforms of the security forces.
Speaking to the BBC, Buthayna Chaabane said that a "foreign conspiracy" trying to destabilize Syria, which many foreigners had been arrested and that Damascus respected the right of citizens to demonstrate peacefully. Thousands of Syrians protest continued were not persuaded to such explanations.
In Deraa, a statue of Hafez al-Assad (father of current president) demolished on Friday became the new symbol of the revolt. Dozens of people climbed onto the pedestal covered with rubble and hung posters with the phrase "the people demand the fall of the regime," the cry emblematic of the Egyptian revolution.
The funeral of the latest victims, whose names were chanted from the minarets, became acts of defiance to the Government. The same happened in Tafas, a few miles north of Deraa. The funeral for three victims led the assault on the local headquarters of the Baath, the hegemonic party of the roast, and subsequent fire.
The fact that the protest reached Latakia, a coastal province in the west of the country with many tourist facilities and well-known, especially because she was born Hafez al-Assad, who founded the ruling dynasty, had to aggravate concerns in Damascus. Geographical and social diversity of the riots, in which many Sunni supporters of an Islamic regime but also young people who demanded democracy, showed that the desire for change was widespread.
In political and journalistic Damascus claimed that President Bashar Assad is preparing to make a televised speech (after being invisible for the entire week) in which materialize the promises of reform made by the consultant on Thursday and announced a remodeling Chaabane the Government.
What seems clear is that Syria does not give the conditions for a relatively short bloody revolution, as in Tunisia and Egypt. The Army is directly controlled by the Assad family. If the protests culminated in a rebellion the most likely scenario would be that of a new Libya. That could deter the vast majority of the urban population to join the protest: they are tired of the regime but little interest in an internal war or the rise of the Islamists. 
Buthayna, which has not detailed the timetable for implementing the measure, undertaken during a press conference this week that they were considering the repeal of this rule, along with other reforms to curb corruption and raise the salaries of officials. Yesterday, in a new gesture failed to appease the revolt, the government released 260 Islamist prisoners.
Instead, the protests spread to the coastal zone of the country. Deraa, the southern city where the protest was born, lived another day of demonstrations and the Baath party headquarters and a police station were set ablaze. In nearby Tafas, a crowd came to the funeral of three of the dead on Friday after police shootings and also burned the headquarters of the Baath.
In Latakia, capital of the province's native Asad and a strong presence Alawi formed a march against the regime. The state agency SANA reported in this port city killed 12 people in the past two days. Syria did not live a week so bloody since 1982, when an Islamist rebellion caused dozens of deaths and the subsequent government crackdown left between 10,000 and 20,000 bodies in the city of Hama.
So far, no shots of the security forces and the promises to end corruption and political oppression, alleviating served Bashar Asad to regain control of the situation. The Government of El Asad insisted in saying that the deaths recorded during the week (more than 100 according to various Syrian hospital sources, at least 55 according to Amnesty International) had not been shot by police, but the mysterious "foreign armed groups" disguised with uniforms of the security forces.
Speaking to the BBC, Buthayna Chaabane said that a "foreign conspiracy" trying to destabilize Syria, which many foreigners had been arrested and that Damascus respected the right of citizens to demonstrate peacefully. Thousands of Syrians protest continued were not persuaded to such explanations.
In Deraa, a statue of Hafez al-Assad (father of current president) demolished on Friday became the new symbol of the revolt. Dozens of people climbed onto the pedestal covered with rubble and hung posters with the phrase "the people demand the fall of the regime," the cry emblematic of the Egyptian revolution.
The funeral of the latest victims, whose names were chanted from the minarets, became acts of defiance to the Government. The same happened in Tafas, a few miles north of Deraa. The funeral for three victims led the assault on the local headquarters of the Baath, the hegemonic party of the roast, and subsequent fire.
The fact that the protest reached Latakia, a coastal province in the west of the country with many tourist facilities and well-known, especially because she was born Hafez al-Assad, who founded the ruling dynasty, had to aggravate concerns in Damascus. Geographical and social diversity of the riots, in which many Sunni supporters of an Islamic regime but also young people who demanded democracy, showed that the desire for change was widespread.
In political and journalistic Damascus claimed that President Bashar Assad is preparing to make a televised speech (after being invisible for the entire week) in which materialize the promises of reform made by the consultant on Thursday and announced a remodeling Chaabane the Government.
What seems clear is that Syria does not give the conditions for a relatively short bloody revolution, as in Tunisia and Egypt. The Army is directly controlled by the Assad family. If the protests culminated in a rebellion the most likely scenario would be that of a new Libya. That could deter the vast majority of the urban population to join the protest: they are tired of the regime but little interest in an internal war or the rise of the Islamists.
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