WarSclerotic

Syrian President Bashar Assad said that he will advocate for political and economic reform in Syria, it was reported in the Wall Street Journal on Sunday. Assad made the comments in response to massive protests against widespread poverty and political oppression that have swept the Middle East in the last two months.

“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 told the American journal, signaling that he would attempt to pre-empt a popular uprising against his own regime before potentially destabilizing demonstrations reached the streets of Damascus.

	Syrian President Bashar Assad, November 10, 2010.
	Photo by: AP

Bashar Assad assumed the presidency of Syria in 2000, and prior to that his father Hafez Assad had occupied the office of president for three decades.

Demonstrations in Egypt have demanded the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak, who has held that office for over 29 years, and in Tunisia, protesters succeeded in chasing President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali out of office, after 23 years of rule.