WarSclerotic

Mr. Hussein was among four opposition figures that saw Ms. Shaaban this month and presented demands that included an end to violent repression of protesters and the introduction of political reform in the country, ruled by the Assad family since 1970, according to Reuters.

The meetings were the first between the opposition and senior officials since demonstrations calling for political freedom and an end to corruption erupted in the southern city of Deraa on March 18.

“I hope we will see (no firing at demonstrators) tomorrow. I still call for non-violent form of any protest regardless of the response of the security apparatus,” Mr. Hussein said in a statement sent to Reuters.

Fridays, the Muslim day of prayer, offer the only chance for Syrians to assemble in large numbers, making it easier to hold demonstrations. This Friday will be an important test after the government said it had largely put down the unrest.

Ms. Shaaban made a similar statement to the one on Thursday at the beginning of the demonstrations in March. Authorities have since blamed most of the violence on “armed terrorist groups” backed by Islamists and foreign agitators.

Observers say that Ms. Shaaban and President Assad seem to be playing “good cop, bad cop,” a familiar tactic in which one official presents a regime’s seemingly benign face, while the other cracks the whip. In Mr. Assad’s case, a statement by Ms. Shaaban also gives him deniability. Should Syrian forces fire on protesters today, the president could always argue that Ms. Shaaban may have misunderstood his thinking, or that she hadn’t been authorized to speak out.

The Geneva-based International Commission of Jurists said Syrian troops have killed 700 people, rounded up thousands and indiscriminately shelled towns during the protests, the biggest challenge to President Assad’s 11-year authoritarian rule. The government says about 100 troops and police have been killed.

Foreign journalists have been barred from the country, making independent accounts difficult to obtain.

The 46-year-old president has responded to the unrest with promises of reform, lifting a 48-year-old state of emergency and granting stateless Kurds Syrian citizenship last month.

Washington and its European allies have been criticized for a tepid response to the violence in the country of 23 million people, in contrast with Libya where they are carrying out a bombing campaign they say will not end until leader Muammar Gaddafi is driven from power.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton of the United States, meanwhile, warned Syria it will face more international pressure over its crackdown on popular protests, behavior she called “a sign of remarkable weakness.”

Speaking on the sidelines of an Arctic Council meeting in Greenland, Mrs. Clinton and her Danish counterpart Lene Espersen raised anew the possibility of tighter US and European sanctions against President Assad’s regime, according to Agence-France Presse.

Secretary Clinton lamented that Syria has continued with “a brutal crackdown” against pro-democracy protesters despite what she called overwhelming international condemnation.

“There may be some who think that this is a sign of strength but treating one’s own people in this way is in fact a sign of remarkable weakness,” she said, reiterating President Barack Obama’s and her own condemnation of Syria.

“Relying on Iran as your best friend and your only strategic ally is not a viable way forward. Syria’s future will only be secured by a government that reflects the popular will of all of the people and protects their welfare,” she said, according to AFP.

Mrs. Clinton warned President Assad that he faced “increasing isolation” over his government’s actions, but offered no clue whether Mr. Assad himself would be sanctioned, as members of his regime already have.

Washington would “continue to work with our international partners in the EU (European Union) and elsewhere on additional (ways) to hold Syria responsible for its gross human rights abuses,” she said.

(Abeer Tayel, an editor at Al Arabiya English, can be reached at: abeer.tayel@mbc.net)