Syrian Prime Minister Riyad Hijab has confirmed his defection from Al Assad’s government and that he is in Jordan, thus refuting the Syrian media which has suggested that he was dismissed by Al Assad.

“I announce today my defection from the killing and terrorist regime, and I announce that I have joined the ranks of the freedom and dignity revolution,” Hijab said in a statement read by his spokesman, Muhammed el-Etri, according to Al Jazeera. “I announce that I am from today a soldier in this blessed revolution.”

Hijab, former Minister of Agriculture, was elected prime minister in June after the parliamentary elections. Syrian authorities said this was a decisive step towards the path of democracy, while the opposition denounced it as a fraud.

Apparently, the now former Syrian prime minister has left the country along with at least two ministers and three military officers.

Hijab is thus added to the growing list of defectors, becoming the highest-ranking official to defect from Bashar Al-Assad’s government since the beginning of the uprising. It all started with the Oil Deputy Minister Abdo Houssameddine, who announced on March 8 his desertion and became the first government men to join the opposition.

Diplomats such as the Syrian ambassador in Iraq, his counterpart in the United Arab Emirates, and four deputies have also crossed the border to join the revolution since civil war started.

Hundreds of soldiers, including senior military personnel have also turned their back on Assad’s regime.

According to The Guardian, “Hijab’s defection had been planned for more than two months” but the actual implementation of the plan had be “delayed on many occasions.” Haaretz Israeli newspaper reports that “Hijab had started to plan how he would defect from the first day that he was appointed as prime minister.”

Omar Ghalawanji, a local government minister, has been appointed to take on Hijab’s office at the moment, official Syrian television announced.

The United States believes that the defection of Syria’s prime minister shows that President Assad grip on power is loosening: “This is the latest indication that Assad has lost control of Syria and that the momentum is with the opposition forces and the Syrian people,” says Tommy Vietor, the National Security Council spokesman.

“It’s clear that these defections are reaching the highest levels of the Syrian government and demonstrate that the Syrian people believe Assad’s days are numbered,” Vietor continued.

The news on Hijab’s defection was released just hours after a bomb ripped through the state TV building in the capital Damascus.

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The Syrian Prime Minister, Riyad Hijab, has resigned and joined the revolutionary movement for “freedom and dignity.” Hijab thus became the first Prime Minister of the Assad Regime to give up his post. He is said to have escaped to Jordan together with his family on Monday, August 6. However, Jordanian National Television has denied the rumor that Hijab is temporarily taking refuge in the territory of the Arab kingdom. It is still unclear where the former PM and his family are hiding.

There is information that three other ministers followed him out of the country. According to international reports, the Finance Minister, Mohammad Jlailati, was among them but his escape was prevented and lead to his arrest. The Syrian State Television officially repudiated these disclosures. An interview with Mr. Jlailati, in which he refutes the rumor that he was taken into custody, was broadcasted.

The uprising in Syria started in March, 2011 and has until now claimed the life of thousands of people. Syrians fight for change. The civil war is directed against the al-Assad regime, which prevents the democratization of the republic. As part of the revival of Syria under the government of Bashar al-Assad, Riyad al-Hijab was appointed to the post of Prime Minister in June, 2012.

The events in Syria immediately found an international response. The desertion of Mr. Hijab is “just the latest indication that Assad has lost control of Syria,” declared Tommy Vietor, US National Security Council spokesman.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson of Mr. Hijab announced that the former Prime Minister will work to “rebuild a Syria of the future, and Syria without Bashar al-Assad.” In a written statement to the media, Mr. Hijab himself declared his “deflection from the killing and terrorist regime.”

“I am from today a soldier in this holy revolution,” he adds.

It was reported that Omar Ghalawanji will provisionally assume office as Prime Misnister of Syria.

In the meantime, the actions of the revolutionaries continue. The building of the Syrian State Television and Radio in Damascue was the target in a recent bombing. As a result, three people were seriously injured.

In an official statement, Iran, one of the al-Assad regime’s allies, declared that it will organize a meeting in which the conflict situation in Syria will be discussed. The main goal of the conference will be to find a lasting solution of the problem between the revolutionaries and the ruling circles.

“Our aim is to find ways out of the current crisis, to return stability and to calm that country,” said Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister.

It was announced that Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Quarter will not participate in the meeting, because they are in opposition to the Syrian President.

“Saudi Arabia, Quatar and Turkey are responsible for the blood that is being spilled in Syria,” Mr. Abdollahian added. The fate of Syria remains unclear, although Middle East experts are convinced that the Assad regime is running into a serious crisis in its inner circles.

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President Bashar al-Assad has not made a public appearance since the July 18 bombing which killed four of his most important security officials- including Assef Shawka, his brother-in-law. The bombing took place during an attack through rebel forces in the country’s capital city of Damascus.

A few days ago President Assad urged his army to increase fighting against rebel forces. The United States has condemned his recent declarations, and has called him a coward. U.S. State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said, “We think it’s cowardly, quite frankly, to have a man hiding out of sight, exhorting his armed forces to continue to slaughter the civilians of his own country.”

Some reports said that President Assad has fled Damascus to a safe locations like Latakia or Tartous, which are areas in which the Alawite sect, Assad’s family sect, is predominant. Other reports say he is still in Damascus. His actual whereabouts are a mystery.

Fighting in Damascus has increased in recent days, so many Syrians have decided to evacuate the capital and many of them have headed towards neighboring country Lebanon.

A Syrian opposition activist, whom alleged receiving information from a senior Syrian army officer, said that after the deadly bombing  President Assad, accompanied by his wife and three children, decided to escape to Tartous, which is a port city on the Mediterranean coast and a place where Russia has a naval base. Russia has in past months supported Assad’s regime and even vetoed, along with China, the UN intervention in Syria.

The Syrian state media, on the other hand, is alleging that Assad is still in Damascus, and showed broadcast footage of the president swearing in the new defense minister, who will replace Daoud Rajha killed in the July 18 bombing.

Another report, published by Reuters, quotes opposition forces and a Western diplomat who assure that President Assad escaped to Latakia, which is another coastal city very close to Tartous. In this city President Assad has a summer palace that is heavily guarded.

These are just the main possibilities of President Assad’s location. His location is uncertain and the situation is getting worse every day. A diplomatic solution does not seem possible, as the Arab League and the UN have tried to force President Assad to resign, to no avail. The Syrian rebels’ methods are getting more and more brutal every day; some recent videos showed atrocities committed against Assad’s regime supporters. The situation is chaotic and has already taken thousands of human lives.

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Syrian government forces renewed their attacks on the city of Homs Monday 6 June 2012 as part of their efforts to quell the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad .

According to BBC, Kofi Annan, international mediator, expressed his concern for the shelling in Homs and on the reported attack on the town al-Haffa in the Latakia province as civilians are trapped in both towns.  Annan demanded UN military observers be allowed entry to al-Haffa said spokesman Ahmad Fawzi in a statement.

A six point peace plan arranged by Annan went into effect two months ago for the UN and the Arab League, which included a ceasefire, has been abandoned.

A BBC correspondent reported a steady stream of mortar rounds falling to the ground as quick as one per minute.

It was said that the Syrian army appeared to be using a surveillance drone to select buildings as targets for shelling, according to the BBC Middle East bureau editor Paul Danahar. He says the UN has been trying to gain access to the city for two days with no success yet.

According to Fox News, the violence had killed at least 74 people Monday across the country even with the hundreds of UN observers in the country.

Image Courtesy of  FreedomHouse

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If until recently, the problematic situation in Syria was thought to be a temporary instability, then today, it can be said that there is a possibility of civil war in the Arab country. The protests against the president, Bashar al-Assad, and his regime grew into a continued and strenuous struggle that evoked the public opinion. How long this will last is unknown.

It is too late for the Syrians to peacefully extinguish the bloody conflagration. The victims of the uprising are increasing all the time, and by now, they exceed 7,600 people.  This includes both civilians and military men. Whether Syria will have the success of Egypt is one of the most asked questions, concerning society all around the world, because the national issue that started almost a year ago, has gradually turned into a universal one.

The correspondent for London’s ‘The Sunday Times’, Marie Colvin, and the French photographer, Remi Ochlic, were cruelly killed in the city of Homs during a siege. Until now, people have not been thinking about the jeopardy and the consequences of this uprising, but the tragic death of the two journalists in Syria proved that the situation in the Arab world is going off the rails.

On February 24, in Tunisia, a meeting was held by the “Friends of Syria”. During the meeting, around 60 countries insisted on stopping the outrage in troubled Syria. The world leaders unanimously decided that more serious measures against the Assad’s regime need to be taken. They are considering issuing an ultimatum to the Assad government. Their main goal is to send aid in order to help the civilians of the revolutionary country.

Hillary Clinton, the U.S. Secretary of State, appealed to all nations to put bans on the import of oil from Syrians as well as on traveling to and from the Arab country. According to Clinton, it is the high cost that the Syrian officials have to pay for not taking into account the opinion of the international community. She also added that the U.S. will allot $10 million in aid to the Syrian citizens.

Only the leaders of China and Russia still support the Syrian president. They were against the UN resolutions of ending the Assad’s regime, stating that the these declarations will cause more violence in the Arab country. Some diplomats connected the actions of China and Russia to their previous union during the Cold War, but one is sure, with their attitude towards the UN resolutions and the current affairs in Western Asia, they incurred the sharp tongue of the U.S. Secretary of State.

Hilary Clinton described their veto regarding the resolutions as “despicable”. “It is just despicable, and I ask, ‘Whose side are they on?’ They are clearly not on the side of the Syrian people,” she said during the meeting in Tunisia.When the Arab Spring will come is still not apparent, but it is an incontrovertible fact that the uprising has transformed into a universal issue that has strained relations between world leaders.

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Rarely do you find a person with an interest in Middle Eastern politics, or a citizen of the region who is not familiar with the renowned Al-Assad family of Syria. The Assads, originally from Al-Qurdaha in North West Syria, are members of the minority Al-Alawite sect (branch of Islam) that have ruled and controlled Syria’s foreign and domestic policies for over four decades with an iron fist.

In comparison with the region’s dictators, the Assad family has created an infamous reputation for being the Middle East’s most violent and brutal regime. Father of current President Bashar Al-Assad, Hafez Al-Assad’s rise to power took place throughout 1964-1971.

A member of the Syrian Ba’athist party that in practice was ruling Syria at that time, he jumped through military ranks which resulted in him moving from Major to General in less than one year. This was followed by an appointment as Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force, Minister of Defense, and finally President after an intra-party coup which resulted in the 1970 Syrian Corrective Revolution.

Throughout his rule, Al Assad’s reign was marked with the use of extreme violence to sustain his rule. A famous landmark of his career was the 1982 Hama Massacre which was personally conducted by Rifaat Al Assad (Hafiz’s brother) and executed by the Syrian army. The target of the massacre was to brutally suppress a Sunni opposition against Al-Assad and ended with the death of some 40,000 citizens.

Ironically, Bashar al Assad reached power in a similar way to his father. Residing in London to finish his medical residency as an ophthalmologist, he was called back to Syria in 1994 after the sudden death of his brother Bassil, who was initially being groomed from birth to be his father’s successor.

All eyes turned to Bashar who made Colonel by 1999, and following his father death in 2000, he was voted as leader of the Ba’ath Party, President, and Commander in Chief through a public referendum.

The referendum that was voted on the day Hafiz died, lowered the minimum age for a Presidential candidate to 34, Bashar’s age at the time, and Bashar was made President with an astonishing 97.2% of the votes.

The horror of the regime today

The hand of the Syrian regime does not only reach its own territories, it extends and spreads fear across its border through several political allies that might do the unthinkable to please it. Despite that, one should not see the suffering of the brave Syrian people and remain silent anymore.

What you see on the news or internet of shooting or bombarding or physical abuse are only minor tricks of what the regime really has up its sleeves. The real horror presents itself in the inhumane torture that goes on in prisons and investigations rooms.

Bear in mind that the Syrian regime does not rely on physical torture only, its main objective is to achieve severe psychological damage to their victims via the latter. With the extensive use of force and violence, the Syrian Regime aims to break the will of all citizens that oppose it through degrading human value in ways you can’t imagine.

Through planning, training or “experimenting” on a handful of citizens, and execution of their means using large masses, the Syrian regime has displayed high professionalism in its ways and earned first place in comparison with other Arab governments as the Middle East’s most ruthless and vicious regime.

The methods of torture vary depending on the investigators sadistic ratio of pleasure or how bad they need information to unjustly charge someone with a crime, which makes what went on in Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo a walk in the park.

Men, women, and children whipped with stinging electric wires. Spark plugs wired to car batteries being attached to victims’ toes, fingers, or even genitals with high current electricity running through them as their tormentor pleases.

Prisoners forced to drink a large quantity of liquids and then tying up genitals, thus forbidding the victims from using the bathroom and making them feel like their bladder will literally explode. The latest case was the holding down of prisoners’ faces towards the breach (rear) of an RPG launcher, followed by firing the RPG, and scorching the victims’ faces with the immense heat emitted from the launching.

One of course cannot forget the “usual” methods the various Syrian governmental personnel carry out. Beatings, blindfolding, handcuffing, deprivation from sleep, and being squeezed into tires are means of sending a message to all that oppose the Syrian regime.
Following China and Russia’s veto in the Security Council session to condemn Syria’s acts of violence on its own people, the regime freely continues to carry on all sorts of vicious methods to try and silence the voices calling for freedom.

What is more saddening is that the Syrian people have called for international interference and are being massacred on a daily basis without any official condemnation for merely political interests of super and regional powers. The apple does not fall far away from the tree, and Bashar Al Assad continues to carry his father’s legacy of brutality. How long can the Syrian people endure this, only time can tell.

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People of the Arab world have started to envisage a society that is not designed to suppress the voice of the people.

The importance of democracy has really dawned on the people of Syria, which shows that they have picked up something which already set ablaze many Arab states this year. The wave of disturbances between state and citizens that rocketed in Tunisia and Egypt arrived in Syria, leading to the death of hundreds of people.

This crisis at the outset is much deeper in meaning. It represents how the state has ignored the will of its citizens and deceived its people under President Bashar-Al Assad, who inherited Syria’s harsh dictatorships from his father Hafez-Al-Assad.

Economic stagnation and ancient autocrats are just a few of the grievances that are responsible for the upheaval currently threatening to sweep away the ruling regime. Decades of repression and in some instances economic sluggishness has resulted in viole”nt disruption of political, social and economic life in the general Middle East.

What is needed is a series of political and economic reforms that would foster economic growth. Furthermore, it calls for recognition and granting of basic rights to people to protest and bring about change.

Political liberty in terms of rule of law, more education, a free press and liberation of women is required for every state to lead a peaceful life. Amartya Sen, a Nobel laureate in economics on Economic development, said:

“Development has to more concerned with enhancing the lives we lead and freedoms we enjoy.”

People were shouting houriye, houriye (freedom, freedom), and it represents the fact that people realized that their political system is not really reflecting their views.

The relationship between the state and its people had been devastated. According to Economics, a newspaper, “the media which focused on the apparent aspect of the crises (filmed or to produce reports describing the events in the street) have not paid attention to socio-conomic, demographic or political aspects of Syrian society”.

The Syrian society disregarded the existence of more than one political party to oppose the Baath Party until recently. But recent violent protest clearly reveals frustration and state of unease for the people led under pressure to bring in new law that now permits the creation of new political parties along-side the ruling Baath Party.

The key demand of the protest is the liberation of the political system and freedom to form political parties that had been restrained by article 8 of the Syrian constitution so far.

Existence of single political party shows a political monopoly in the country, in economic theory birth or existence of monopoly is regretted or hindered by law similarly in politics it is protest for a change that eventually leads to more just society.

Now the attitude of the Syrian government has been softened since the cabinet approved the multi party bill. Other political party can now participate in elections. Normalcy and prosperity should not be unreachable in the future.

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Hundreds of Syrians have already fled their country and human rights groups say more than 1,300 civilians have been killed in the Syrian conflict since mid-March. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said at a press conference last week: “It’s very clear to us that unless the Syrian forces immediately end their attacks and their provocations that are not only affecting their own citizens but endangering the potential of border clashes then we’re going to see an escalation of conflict in the area.” At last Friday’s prayers, at least 20 civilians were shot by security forces and hundreds were arrested in the gathered protests. The government have express willingness to reform, but will the people accept the compromise?

A few weeks ago, I spoke with Sasha Ghosh-Siminoff, a journalist and Master graduate in Middle East Politics with a specialty in the levant region. We spoke about his stay in the Syrian town of Aleppo between January and April 18, 2011, which collided with the outbreak of the conflict. He gave us his analysis of the situation.

How was the daily situation for you during your stay?

When I say we (from the CET Academic Program) were being monitored and watched, it wasn’t very overt but we knew that being Americans, especially being foreigners in Syria, was gonna come par with the program so we were just aware of it. But there was really no problem, I had numerous friends who were interested in human rights and they went freely back and forth to the Palestinian refugee camps [...] so for the first six to eight weeks, there were really no problems.

How do you keep up to date with the situation in the country now?

It’s certainly been difficult. Before I left, as the situation was getting worse, I spoke with a little number of my friends and we all exchanged emails, phone numbers everything [...] they all were very upset because we left very abruptly. Friendship in Syria is a very deep thing [...] so the fact that we had to leave so quickly was really hard on them but [...] I keep up to date with them, they email me, they let me know what’s going on. It’s getting more and more tricky, I have a number of friends who do participate in protests and they have right now ten different sim cards for their mobile phones, they change them a lot. Sometimes they don’t feel confident that they can send email without being tracked so, it’s become more difficult.

How would you define the initial motivation behind the protest?

It’s an interesting question, I think in many ways without the incident that occurred in Daraa, many of these things may or may no have come to light. Hindsight of course is 20/20 but the incident in Daraa that sparked all of this was a group of kids, very young people, who had written some graffiti – slogans they had heard and picked up from the Egyptian and Tunisian revolutions. [...] You know, family is important and the fact that the security services arrested those people I think was extremely culturally tone-deaf, and I think it really sparked for a lot of people – it was the straw that broke the camel’s back. There’s been a lot of other incidence, arbitrary arrest, like I discussed in an op-ed piece in the Guardian [...] These kinds of things do happen, they’re not as common as they were under Hafez al-Assad, things did get better under his son but the pressure had been building. To give you another example, me and some friend would be sitting in a cafe and a friend would look to me and say ‘we need to leave and move somewhere else’ and I’d say ‘why?’ and he’s like ‘there’s security services watching us and I’m worried about us having an open conversation without problems’ so we would move – little things like that, and just living in that kind of atmosphere, I think, takes a toll after a while.

In your opinion, what keeps Assad in position?

I think it’s interesting to note a few things, one is that when Bashar al-Assad came to power, he’d promised numerous reforms and he had promised to do away with a lot of the old guard that had supported Hafez al-Assad, his father. And he did change a lot of those positions, [...] but the family dynamic of the al-Assad family is very complicated. For example, there are reports of the fact that for one, his older brother is in charge of the fourth mechanized devision which has been the division of the army they’ve been using to suppress the protest in Daraa especially and to occupy several cities and his brother-in-law, I believe, is in charge of the internal security service. I don’t have [all the] information, I’m not sure what kind of conversation they’re having but I certainly feel that it’s no longer just Bashar’s decision in terms of how to deal with the protests.

Do you think it will come to an intervention?

It’s a good question, I believe that intervention would be a very difficult prospect because of Syria’s position in the middle east, it’s relationship with Iran, it’s relationship with Lebanon and of course the negotiations that need to occur between Israel and Syria to have a sustainable peace between those two countries. Intervention of the kind we see in Libya; I don’t know if that’s possible or not and I’m not sure it would be in anyone’s interest to do that. I think the international community would prefer the Syrians to do this themselves. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have both made statements saying that they condemn the killing, [...] that the Syrian government should allow for protest to occur and that significant reforms need to occur. The issue of reform has interestingly enough been echoed by the prime minister of Turkey and Turkey does have a good relationship with Syrian government so that was significant [but] I don’t know if anyone’s going be willing to intervene in the way that we’ve seen so far in Libya.

In the greater Middle East, what does it mean for the future structure of the region that Arab Spring is sweeping through former authoritarian states?

I think it’s clear that autocratic rule in the Middle East failed in numerous ways and in places like Syria, for the longest time they would use Israel as a foil to say ‘we have these issues and these problems internally but we have this greater enemy of Israel that’s always there so we need to put aside our wants and wished domestically to deal with the threat of Israel’. But I think, at a certain point, that sort of discussion loses weight and domestically speaking, especially in places like Syria, there’s so many other concerns, so many other issues that need to be addressed and it’s all just coming out. I think it’s the same thing in Egypt and Tunisia and in Yemen that there’s a certain amount of corruption, there’s a lot of people – they work day and night and barely get by and that combined with the kind of repressive tactics these autocrats use to stay in power, I think it’s just too much.  Tunisia was very symbolic in the sense that they showed the rest of the Arab world ‘this is possible, you can do this, if we can do this you can do this’. And I think, for many people that was very striking and I think, all over the Middle East and North Africa [people] really want reform and change and I think it’s a good thing. I’m really excited that this is a movement that’s come from within, it’s not external, these are movements being done by people there and it’s from them and I think, because it is from them that, I think there’s hope, definitely hope.

Hear the full interview on our iTunes channel soon.

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Farid al-Ghadry, President of the Reform Party of Syria, the opposition party which is based in United States, visited Italy and participated to a international meeting to discuss the situation is Syria and in the Middle-East area.

Ghadry met the Italian President of Chamber of Deputies Gianfranco Fini in occasion of a press conference, organized by the Vice President of the Foreign Affairs Commission Fiamma Nirenstein, in which the Reform Party President was the main guest.

He asked Italy to cut its diplomatic relations with the regime of Bashar al-Assad, but to keep the relations with Syria. “Europe should vote for a humanitarian resolution in support of Syrian people,” he said. “We have to stop atrocities and violence against women, children and men tortured by Assad’s forces.”

“The regime is not able to survive to this revolution, we have just to speed up the fall. For this reason we don’t want external military intervention in the country. We ask Europe to go on pressing on Assad’s regime in order to create the conditions for a military coup d’état within the country, which could free Syria”, added the reformist leader.

He asserts that “The fall of the regime will be the beginning of a new season for the relations with Israeli, Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq and Jordan, but especially could push also for a change in Iran,” referring to the so-called “domino effect”.

Italy expressed its support to Syria and its commitment for the Syrian cause and its democratic aspirations. Ghadry, sincerely moved by the Italian support and solidarity, thanked Italy and the politicians who welcomed him and organized the conference, in which many crucial points about the Syrian repression and the situation in many of the Middle-Eastern countries were discussed.

Farid al-Ghadry currently lives in United States where he emigrated in 1964 with his parents, but he was born in Aleppo, Syria. His Syrian citizenship was revoked by President Assad in 2007 after visiting Israel’s Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. He founded the Reform Party of Syria in US, gathering Syrians who are living in America and other countries.

Syrian government doesn’t allow the formation of opposition parties, and doesn’t recognize the Reform Party as representative of Syrians. Political opponents as Ghadry are obliged to choose exile.

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As more reports of protestors being shot dead in Syria are coming in, so are international calls for the Syrian government to back down or stop their violent crackdown on demonstrators. It is easy to get caught in the political tailspin as the global community holds its breath while observing the so-called Arab Spring. However, for the Syrian people the facts are on the ground, where government troops show little restraint as they attempt to exert the will of the regime.

I met Nizar, not his real name, by chance in the capital of Germany. He had left his home in Syria about a month ago and agreed to speak to me about his country and his thoughts on the conflict.

“I’m in love with my country,” he told me. “I love everything about it – the people, the food, the trees, the ground, the buildings, the stones, everything.”

“What I love about my people is that we’re so hospitable – when you come into our home, we offer you a place to stay, a bed to sleep in and food to eat, lots of food! Eat, eat, eat. We would get on your nerves with offering food because we are afraid you’re too shy to ask!” He told me he misses his country, but continues to have faith in the people “Syrians are such hard workers, they always find a way.”

Nizar is from a Christian, middle-class background. His parents run a restaurant and are both educated. Nizar himself is a student.

During our conversation, I gathered a few important traits of the Syrian society. First of all, communication systems in the country are limited, and internet censorship has been in place for years. Users are constantly monitored, while websites such as Facebook and youtube have only recently been allowed. Nizar tells me that the ban on Facebook didn’t prevent people from using it through proxy, but that the government felt no urgency to crack down on the proxies. Why, I wondered?

“People only use Facebook for fun,” he answered and continued to tell me that it is generally uncommon to speak about politics – unheard of in public. The fear that the wrong words could end you up in prison deters that form of conversations. Despite this, he tells me that people still keep themselves up-to-date about the world, and that most are well-educated in society and politics.

When we spoke about the regime, Nizar explained to me that the system in Syria is innately corrupt. “Not like South America because there’s a high level of security [...] but the Syrian people have fallen into a pattern that says solving problems is easier done with money.” He is not shy to blame Syrians for letting it come to this. “If you are an important person, and the people around you don’t take advantage of knowing you in this position,  then they are considered naive and bound to fall behind.”

Meanwhile, Nizar loves his country for its inclusiveness and social community, but he has also seen the ugly side of so social of a society. He and his family have been through a difficult ordeal which proves that the injustice of the regime can get to anyone. He gave me a very personal account of how the regime affected his life which, for the sake of his family, will not be published. He told me that the sense of community in Syria could sometimes become too much for him, and that people were quick to pass judgement and delve in rumors because “everyone knows everyone’s business.”

I asked him about his emotions towards Bashar al-Assad and the regime, but he was quick to correct me, “Bashar and the regime are two very different things.” In his and many fellow Syrian’s view, Bashar was never a man of the military but forced into his position after the unexpected death of his brother. Nizar explains that his emotions are based in a gut-feeling because society has taught him that Bashar as a person is humble and not dangerous. When he came to power, he came with a lot of hope that he could improve the country.

The problem is the regime. The majority of the Syrian society is Sunni, while its rulers are from the minority Alawite sect of Shiite Islam. Nizar described the rulers of his country as stubborn people, very strict, who have forged their power on fear and social unity. It is, however, also the perfect soil for corruption and injustice.

As we began talking about the current situation he told me “today, many Syrians are frustrated.” Why, he asked me. “Security.”

Although the nation lived under a strict and corrupt system, security was always first priority. “The security forces are very powerful, yes, and they can interfere with your life in a second, true, but they kept my society safe.” He had an interesting interpretation of the present situation. “If I had to choose between a liberal society or security in my country, I would choose to be safe.” He elaborated on his conclusion saying that minorities in Syria fear that, like Egypt, the introduction of ‘majority rules’ would grant full power to a religious segment, which could potentially turn the country into an Islamic state. Nizar’s worry is that failure to separate religion and society, like the regime did, could end up alienating him and others of the Christian minority.

Briefly, we spoke about his irritation with the presence of American politics in the region. He noted that he had nothing against Americans, or any other communities of people, but that he was annoyed with the idea of “America’s Freedom Packages” – as was satirically coined by the American comedian John Stewart. “If the revolutionary movement in Syria turn to support from the West and succeeds, it would be like stabbing their country in the back.” He believes millions of Syrians will reject these freedom packages. “Our society is different, you can’t expect our traditions to suddenly coexist with western ideas let alone change overnight.” He sees the solution as a much longer process: “Syria needs to change by itself, and it will take education.”

I finally asked him about the developments of the protests. “I am so sorry for the violence in my country, no matter what war is being fought, I never wished this for us.” Still, he doesn’t see it ending before the goal is reached. “The problem is that there is no real opposition to the regime, and it’s scary to follow the developments. I want change in my society, but I don’t know who I should support. The religions? The capitalists? who? I believe people would calm down if the old crooks were to be judged under the law. I think an independent law system could bring freedom.”

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In the early hours of Saturday, Syrian troops and tanks entered Baniyas, a coastal city in the northwest of Syria located at the foot of the hill of Qalaat el-Marqab. Baniyas has been the centre of anti-regime protests for some time and as the report of the military operation emerged, electricity and communication was cut. Updates are coming from human rights activists on the scene.

More than 500 people are believed to have died since mid-March as a result of President Bashar al-Assad and his regime’s brutal crackdown on protesters. 8000 people have been jailed or gone missing so far.

According to the BBC, at least 21 people were reported killed in Homs, Hama and other cities Friday, in what protesters had named ‘day of defiance’. However, no reports can be verified independently since foreign journalists are not allowed to enter Syria.

As tanks rolled into the ‘bastion of the protestors’, residents formed human chains in an attempt to halt the procession, human rights activists told AFP. NOW Lebanon could report that tanks had also encircled the nearby town of Bayda while army ships patrolled offshore.

According to new agencies, activists have told that armed units were advancing on the Sunni Muslim areas but steering clear of the neighborhoods of the minority Alawite sect which the presidential family belongs to.

“Residents are reporting the sound of heavy gunfire and seeing Syrian navy boats off the Baniyas coast. Sunni and mixed neighborhoods are totally besieged now,” one rights campaigner, who did not want to be identified, told Reuters news agency.

This mornings development comes two days after a large convoy of military vehicles pulled out of Daraa, which had been under siege since April 25. Hundreds of families are said to have fled Baniyas in anticipation of attacks.

(Sources: BBC News, NOW Lebanon have contributed to this report)

Image provided by Ahmad Al Zoughbi

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