ASSAD’S BAATH PARTY BUILDING SHUT DOWN AMID PROTESTS IN SUWAYDA

Mon 28 August 2023:

In the strongest challenge to Syrian President Bashar Al Assad’s reign in years, young protesters on Sunday welded shut the provincial headquarters of the ruling Baath party in the largely Druze city of Suweida in southwest Syria, as per opposition sources.

According to sources, the government in Damascus detained a public official over the weekend for criticizing the president on social media for what he called collecting wealth when the rest of the country is in economic ruin.

Massive anti-regime protests continue in southern Syria against declining living conditions & Syrian regime's economic policies spread across southern Syria this week. Strike was declared in Suweida province hundreds of protesters chanted slogans against regime. pic.twitter.com/7AvjSCt2HJ

— INDEPENDENT PRESS (@IpIndependent) August 27, 2023

The street movement in the governorate of Suweida on the border with Jordan started last week after the authorities increased fuel prices sharply.

Current unrest in Syria, and renewed dissent elsewhere, signal difficulties in the president’s quest to consolidate his power, especially following his readmition to the Arab league in May.

Photos and video footage tweeted by Suwayda24 network of citizen journalists showed young men blocking a road in central Suweida with burning tires and rocks, leading to the city’s main square, where another daily demonstration took place.

They also used welding equipment to close the main gate of the Suweida headquarters of the Arab Socialist Baath party, which Al Assad heads.

For most of the civil war, a balance between pro- and anti-Assad militia has held in Suweida

The war broke out after authorities used force to suppress the 2011 uprising against Mr Al Assad’s rule. The president, who belongs to the Alawite sect, inherited power form his father, Hafez Al Assad, in 2000.

A sharp economic crisis in the last three years appears to be chipping away at the religious and ethnic alliance that played a crucial role in helping Al Assad maintain his seat of power in Damascus, observes say. The alliance comprises Alawite, Druze, Christians and other minorities, and of affluent people from the majority Sunni sect.

The economic crisis in the regime areas deepened as the economy in neighbouring Lebanon continued its melt down. Since the two countries became independent of France in the 1940s, Lebanon has been the deposit house for Syria, and its economic lungs.

Massive depreciation in the value of the Syrian pound in last three years, is making even hardcore supporters of Assad question his ability to deliver.

Arab rapprochement with Assad this year had bought the president time in that his supporters thought it would bring material gain, which did not happen.

The currency is trading at 14,000 Syrian pounds to the dollar, compared to 50 pounds to the dollar in March 2011. In May this year, when Assad attended an Arab League summit for the first time in more than a decade, the pound was trading at 10,000 to the dollar.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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