While some of Syria's 1. Some Syrians from a variety of backgrounds still believe the government narrative that the unrest and violence is caused by armed gangs, Islamists, and a foreign conspiracy against the country. But critics say such attitudes are largely the result of propaganda. But the ordinary support on the street also has an effect. In theory, analysts say it should be easy to persuade people to drop support for Assad.
His past image as a reformer who was widely liked, and may have won elections had they been called at the start of the year, has been replaced by support based on intimidation and fear of the alternative. International pressure from the West is targeting regime loyalists, with sanctions on officials and prominent businessmen aiming at provoking others, fearing the same treatment, to split with the regime. But while this could backfire if the regime rallies officials and citizens to its side by repeated claims of a foreign conspiracy, it will also not be enough to change minds.
That must come from more efforts inside. If they did, it would signal a faster downfall. This was story was written by a Monitor correspondent who could not be named for security reasons. Already a subscriber?
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Your subscription to The Christian Science Monitor has expired. You can renew your subscription or continue to use the site without a subscription. If you have questions about your account, please contact customer service or call us at But I know that they're floating out there right now. And I won't make an announcement today about next steps because I think we have to gather the facts.
But I do think that when you start seeing weapons that can cause potential devastation and mass casualties and you let that genie out of the bottle, then you are looking potentially at even more horrific scenes than we've already seen in Syria. And the international community has to act on that additional information. I think Assad must go -- and I believe he will go. It is incorrect for you to say that we have done nothing. We have helped to mobilize the isolation of the Assad regime internationally.
We have supported and recognized the opposition. We have provided hundreds of millions of dollars in support for humanitarian aid. We have worked diligently with other countries in the region to provide additional tools to move towards a political transition within Syria.
Secretary Kerry has been working nonstop since he came into his current position to try to help mobilize and organize our overall efforts, and we will continue to push every lever that we have to try to bring about a resolution inside of Syria that respects the rights and the safety and security of all people, regardless of whatever sectarian lines currently divide Syria. And we're going to do everything we can to continue to prevent it.
And I know that the vast majority of our international partners feel the same way. Click here for the full transcript. His Majesty was the first Arab leader to publicly call on Assad to step down because of the horrific violence that was being inflicted on the Syrian people. Jordan has played a leading role in trying to begin a political transition toward a new government. We're working together to strengthen a credible Syrian opposition. Every day Jordanians are extending a hand of support to neighbors far from home, but this is a heavy burden.
And the international community needs to step up to make sure that they are helping to shoulder this burden. We are already the single largest donor of humanitarian assistance to the Syrian people. The disarmament process ended in June , the same month that Mr Assad ran for a third term in office, winning Other candidates were allowed on the ballot for the first time in decades, but many dismissed the election as a farce.
That summer also saw international attention largely shift away from the war between the Syrian government and opposition towards the threat posed by the jihadist group Islamic State IS , which had overrun large swathes of Syria and Iraq and proclaimed the creation of a "caliphate". In the first half of , the government suffered a string of defeats, losing control of the northern provincial city of Idlib to rebel factions and more territory in the east to IS.
Worried by his ally's precarious position, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the start of a major air campaign in support of Mr Assad that September. The Russian military said its strikes would only target "terrorists", but activists said they repeatedly hit mainstream rebel groups and civilian areas.
The intervention swung the conflict heavily in Mr Assad's favour. Intense Russian air and missile strikes were decisive in the battles for the besieged rebel strongholds of eastern Aleppo in late and the Eastern Ghouta in early UN human rights investigators accused government and Russian forces of committing war crimes during the offensives, which reportedly left hundreds of civilians dead and led to the forced displacement of tens of thousands.
The government was also accused by a joint UN-OPCW mission of being behind a Sarin attack on the rebel-held northern town of Khan Sheikhoun in April , which opposition health officials say killed more than 80 people, and accused by Western powers of an attack allegedly involving the toxic chemical chlorine in the Eastern Ghouta town of Douma in April that rescue workers said left 40 dead.
The latter prompted the US, UK and France to conduct air strikes that they said targeted facilities associated with the "Syrian regime's chemical weapons programme". Mr Assad and the Russian military denied committing war crimes, and said the incidents in Khan Sheikhoun and Douma were "staged" by the opposition and their Western backers.
After recapturing the Eastern Ghouta, pro-government forces set their sights on the last three opposition bastions.
They retook an enclave north of Homs in May and regained full control of Deraa province two months later. They then declared their intention to "liberate" Idlib province. The UN warned there would be a "bloodbath" if the government launched an all-out assault on an area home to about three million civilians, half of them displaced from other parts of Syria.
Mr Assad was not deterred, but the offensive was halted that September by an agreement between Russia and Turkey, which called for a "demilitarised buffer zone" along the front line and the withdrawal from it of the jihadist fighters that dominate Idlib. However, the deal was never fully implemented, and fighting on the ground and air strikes continued.
In late , Mr Assad's forces resumed their offensive. Hundreds of people were killed and almost a million fled their homes before Turkey and Russia agreed another ceasefire in March The president was then forced to turn his attention to dealing with an economic crisis that triggered angry protests in territory under his control for the first time since the start of the uprising.
The election is also a factor in rehabilitating the regime among Arab countries , and maybe the Arab League. The mild-mannered ophthalmologist claimed he wanted to bring genuine political reform to the country, but ended up inflicting even more brutality than his father.
Street protests during the Arab spring in were met with extreme violence from the police state and spiralled into a complex and intractable civil war.
In the early days of the uprising, large numbers of military and party officials defected in protest at the government crackdown.
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