Introduction to the evening news 15-02-2012

Events are unfolding at a rapid pace in Syria and the constitutional proposals must be accepted either internally or by international parties in order to be implemented. Otherwise, they will remain as just that, proposals.

The first development on Wednesday was Syrian president Assad’s announcement that a constitutional referendum will be held in eleven days on February 26th. Today, the Syrian president received the draft constitution, which took a national committee four months to produce.

Immediately after the text was announced a series a series of questions come to mind: how will the referendum be conducted in light of the ongoing armed-conflict? Who can guarantee stability within eleven days? Will the opposition respond to it?  

The first reaction came from Muslim Brotherhood leader and MP Milhem al-Daroubi who rejected the new constitution considering it was eleven months overdue. Al-Daroubi told Reuters, “the new constitution will not change anything, the only thing that president Bashar Assad can do is resign and leave.”

The first international reaction came from Washington when the White House spokesperson said that the referendum is “laughable” and makes a mockery of the Syrian revolution.  

A French-Russian meeting has been scheduled for tomorrow between French FM Alain Juppe and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov. The meeting will be focused on the French proposal for the establishment of humanitarian corridors from populated areas to the borders with Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan as well as the coastal areas along the Mediterranean. However, this proposal was rejected by Moscow.  

On the domestic scene, yesterday’s March 14 event did not draw any real reaction; perhaps we will have to wait until General-Secretary Nasrallah’s speech.

The governmental crisis is in a stalemate despite PM Mikati’s reassurance that the government is functioning properly and does not suffer from any problems.