Fresh anti-regime protests erupted in Syria on Friday, despite concessions offered the day before by President Bashar Al-Assad. The embattled leader named a new cabinet, and announced the release of political prisoners, including those arrested during recent demonstrations. But the international outcry is building against Assad's violent suppression of the uprising, which human rights groups blame for 200 deaths, and protesters are demanding political freedoms Assad remains reluctant to grant. Will anything Assad does be enough to restore calm?
The protesters want more than Assad will give: Assad's concessions don't seem likely to satisfy the opposition, says Khaled Yacoub Oweis at Reuters. The cabinet he replaced "has little power," anyway. And he only released some political prisoners, not those accused of crimes "against the nation and citizens." That could mean the country will still have as many political detainees as it had when the protests against Assad's authoritarian rule began.
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