Bashar al-Assad's crackdown kills UK hopes of a new dawn

[Turborama]

Source: The Guardian

Britain's decade-long optimism that Syria's autocratic regime in Damascus would relax has turned to dust
Julian Borger, diplomatic editor | Wednesday April 27 2011 21.45 BST

The story of Britain's relationship with Syria over the last decade has been the repeated triumph of hope over experience. The web of personal links created by Bashar al-Assad's British education and his marriage to a British-born woman created a familiarity that ultimately proved deceptive.

The hope that Assad would one day relax his autocratic regime, distance himself from Iran, make peace with Israel – and along the way open Syria's sclerotic markets to British business – waned over the years but never quite died until the bloody events of the past few days.

As recently as January, William Hague met Assad in Damascus to discuss British aspirations for Syrian policy. Hague went with his "eyes wide open", expecting little, his aides insisted, but underlying the trip was the faint hope that the spread of Arab revolt might unnerve the Syrian president into giving ground and reassessing his priorities.

As has happened time and again over years of such bilateral encounters, Bashar gave absolutely nothing away. As the foreign secretary recalled in parliament on Tuesday, the Syrian president had insisted that his regime was immune to popular unrest "because of Syria's clear ideology, the continuing resistance to Israel and the popular support for the government in Syria".

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/27/bashar-al-assad-crackdown-kills-uk-hopes

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Bashar al-Assad and wife Asma with the Blairs at No 10.