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Syria awaits end of decades-old state of emergency

Syria is counting down the hours until President Bashar al-Assad makes the promised announcement of the end of 50 years of emergency rule, but the move will have but symbolic impact unless accompanied by other major reforms, analysts say.
“To lift the state of emergency is a symbolic gesture at best,” said Faysal Itani, deputy head of Middle East and North Africa forecasting at London-based risk assessment group Executive Analysis.
“Even if it were followed through…it would not address the key issue, which is the high degree of economic and political power in the hands of a select political elite,” Itani told AFP.
“The only thing that would do, in the current situation, would be sweeping reform of how power is distributed.”
Syria has a religiously and ethnically mixed population. Alongside a large Sunni Muslim community, it has Christian and Kurdish minorities as well as a significant Alawite population, from which President Bashar al-Assad himself hails.
Growing unrest in Syria has turned increasingly violent in recent days, as Assad faces his deepest crisis since he succeeded his father in 2000.
Syria has been under a state of emergency since 1963, when the Baath party seized power. After a series of palace coups, Bashar’s father Assad, rose to presidency in 1970, crushing any signs of dissent in his three-decade rule.
The 45-year-old Bashar is expected to address his country in the days to come, but there is no confirmation that he will officially announce that emergency rule has been lifted.

18:40 | |

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