Baathist dictator Bashir Assad of Syria might be history within a few years. This story provides an interesting overview.

A year after Saddam Hussein's Baath Party regime was toppled next door in Iraq, Syria's Baathist regime is facing the greatest challenge to its power since it took over 41 years ago this month.

Economic reform has stalled. Reformers are pressing for democracy. Washington is applying new pressure. And conservative Islam is making a comeback - outside of politics - in this once staunchly secular Arab nation.

In interviews, more than a dozen professionals and activists, some of them with close ties to the government of President Bashar Assad, said Assad and his ruling Baath Party must make fundamental changes to Syria's ossified economy and politics or risk losing power in the years ahead.

Posted by Matt Rosenberg at March 21, 2004 03:34 PM

---

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.rosenblog.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/151