President Bashar al-Assad was rebuked by the UN-backed mediator on the Syrian crisis on Wednesday for hardening his line on concessions to the opposition in a bleak assessment of the chances for peace.
On Sunday, President Assad merely reiterated discredited promises of internal reforms Photo: AP
By Damien McElroy
7:30PM GMT 09 Jan 2013
Lakhdar Brahimi, a veteran Algerian troubleshooter in conflict, said that President Assad had hinted that he was prepared to make a gesture of conciliation in response to the nationwide uprising in a meeting last month.
However a speech on Sunday, President Assad merely reiterated discredited promises of internal reforms and was "more sectarian and one-sided" than previous offers of talks.
"The time of reforms granted magnanimously from above has passed. People want to have a say in how they are governed and they want to take hold of their own future," he told the BBC.
"In Syria, in particular, I think that what people are saying is that a family ruling for 40 years is a little bit too long.
"So the change has to be real. It has to be real, and I think that President Assad could take the lead in responding to the aspiration of his people rather than resisting it."
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In shifting the blame to President Assad, Mr Brahimi is upping the stakes for Russia and China who have said the speech ought to be given serious consideration.
Mr Brahimi, the joint UN-Arab League envoy is due to meet with US and Russian officials to review efforts to establish negotiations in Geneva on Friday.
Opposition representatives welcomed Mr Brahimi's harder line against regime truculence.
"The statement of Lakhdar Brahimi has been long-awaited. He hasn't criticised Bashar al-Assad before," Walid Saffour, an opposition spokesman in Britain said. "But now after he despaired after Assad's Sunday speech, he had no other alternative than to the say to the world that this rule is a family rule, and more than 40 years is enough."
In a rare sign that some level of diplomacy between the two sides of the Syrian war is possible, 48 Iranians held by the rebels for months were on Wednesday returned to regime controlled Damascus. Tehran said the men were pilgrims travelling to a Syrian shrine after they were captured near Homs but officials also conceded they were retired Revolutionary Guards.
The swap negotiated by a Turkish charity saw 2,139 regime prisoners released from prison.
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