AFP, Washington, 1 March 2012 – Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime is under ‘greater stress’ than it was just two months ago and it will eventually fall, senior US diplomats told a Senate panel on Thursday.
‘The Assad regime is under greater stress than it was even two or three months ago,’ said Robert Ford, the US ambassador to Damascus who left his post when the United States closed its embassy there for security reasons a month ago.
Ford told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the Syrian military which has led an 11-month bloody crackdown against pro-democracy protesters is ‘more challenged’ as they suffer a ‘steady stream’ of defections.
‘The military have so far retained their cohesion, the security services have retained their cohesion, but they are under significantly more stress,’ Ford said.
The business community is ‘very unhappy’ and the Assad regime has changed its policies to ‘placate’ them, and the leadership is also worried about their eroding support in the street, he added.
Ford said he believes the regime understands ‘this is the biggest challenge’ to it during 40 years of Assad family rule.
Jeffrey Feltman, the assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, said the Syrian people have demonstrated ‘enormous courage’ despite the brutality and deprivation they have suffered.
‘We don’t know for sure when the tipping point, the breaking point will come… but it will come,’ Feltman told the same panel. ‘The demise of the Assad regime is inevitable.’