Tens of thousands of Syrians jammed the centre of Damascus on Wednesday in a rally organised by the government in support of President Bashar al-Assad, who is under strong international pressure to withdraw troops from Lebanon.
The demonstration was part of a series of steps Assad has been taking to try to break out of the siege Syria has been placed under in recent weeks by the United States and other big powers, including Britain and France.
Assad gave an ambiguous pledge last weekend to pull 14 000 soldiers out of Syria’s western neighbour, but so far his troops have merely moved east to the Beka’a valley.
US President George Bush has said that such ”half measures” are not good enough and demanded the complete withdrawal of Syrian troops and intelligence agents.
The demonstrators in Damascus denounced Washington’s pressure, burning US flags as riot police took up position around the embassy.
”Of course we expect more American pressure,” the Information Minister, Mehdi Dakhlallah, said. ”President Bush is speaking daily about Syria as if he has no other work.”
Many businesses and schools closed for the afternoon to let workers and students attend the rally. They marched to the presidential palace, bearing Syrian flags and posters of Assad, who waved from the balcony.
The rally was organised mainly by a cousin of the president who runs the telecommunications company Syriatel, which texted messages to phones encouraging people to join in.
Hala al-Ali (18) a student, was typical of those on the march. Asked whether she supported a Syrian pullout from Lebanon, she said: ”We support whatever Bashar wants.”
On Tuesday there was a big pro-Syria turnout in Beirut by the militant Shia group Hizbullah which appears to have emboldened pro-Syrian leaders in Lebanon.
Omar Karami, who resigned as prime minister during big protests against Syria last week, seemed likely on Wednesday to become head of another Syrian-backed government.
His comeback just weeks before elections are held in May looks like a setback for the opposition, which has been refusing to join the prime ministerial consultations required by the Constitution unless its demands are met.
These include the full withdrawal of Syrian troops, the resignation of Lebanese security chiefs and a thorough investigation of the killing last month of the former prime minister Rafik al-Hariri.
A western diplomat in Damascus said the proposed pull-out under pressure from the US had weakened Assad — who has struggled to run Syria since taking over from his late father Hafez five years ago — but the regime was unlikely to collapse.
The government in Damascus is fearful that the US, which already has an arms embargo on Syria, may extend the range of sanctions by freezing Syrian assets in America and banning US companies from working in the country.
As a precaution, the Syrian government and businesses are transferring funds from US banks to Europe.
To try to make Syria a smaller target, Assad is making a series of concessions in addition to the proposed withdrawal. The western diplomat said that Brigadier General Rustom Ghazali, the head of Syrian intelligence in Lebanon who seen by many to be running the country, had been quietly pulled out.
In another apparent concession, the leaders-in-exile of the militant groups Islamic Jihad and Hamas, Ramadan Shalla and Khaled Meschaal, are both reported to have left Syria recently: Shalla for Lebanon and Meschaal for Qatar.
The pullout is caught up in an internal Syrian power struggle between an old guard represented mainly by military and intelligence officers, businessmen and some Cabinet ministers — many of them corrupt — and a reform-minded group around Assad.
A liberal academic said: ”There are strong mafias here. Bashar has to straddle this like a ‘godfather’. His father was a godfather, but Bashar is not comfortable with the role.
”He is tolerated as long as he doesn’t rock the boat. If he rocks the boat, he will be eliminated.” – Guardian Unlimited Â