How Imperialist French Media Analyzed President Assad’s Speech

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s speech on Sunday shocked Western outlets that believed the Syrian regime was on the verge of collapsing, according to Gulf and Western media propaganda.

The French media’s analysis of the Assad speech, however, was not at all surprising, but rather a code that spread in several editorials describing the Syrian President and his strong speech as “intransigent”.

The Le Monde Daily mentioned in its report, “Defiant, offensive, and intransigent, the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad delivered a speech for an hour in which he denied the revolution that challenged his regime for two years, and stressed that the battle is between the country and its foes, between the people and its Western mercenary murderers.”

The Daily further added, “Al-Assad refused to step aside as the opposition and a part of the international community demanded, and rejected any communication with the armed opposition,” considering that “the transitional phase cannot be executed but by constitutional means, namely elections, and the national dialogue cannot be held with armed gangs dictated by foreign regimes.”

On the other hand, Libération, the French ruling Communist Party paper, stated, “Al-Assad’s statements, that came after the UN’s declaration of the crimes committed by his forces, do not fool anyone, and his stepping down is the chief prerequisite to any dialogue,” citing from an expert on Syrian affairs that Assad’s proposal for dialogue meant staying in office.

Moreover, the French Jews website mentioned in a report, “We hoped that Bashar al-Assad would call for calm in his speech on New Year’s, but that did not happen. In front of an excited audience of his supporters, the President was straight, stating that the battle is not between the regime and the opposition, but between the country and its foes who receive funding from abroad, also reiterating that he will continue fighting these groups.”

However, La Croix newspaper, the official spokesperson of the Church, highlighted, “The Syrian President proposed a solution but does not wish to abandon his post.”

For its part, Metro daily described Assad’s speech as intransigent, benefiting from Russia, China, and Iran’s support foreign-wise, and the Army’s support domestically despite Western, Arab, and Turkish pressure to overthrow him.
However, The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as usual, assigned itself the Syrian people’s guardian as well the Arab countries’ under the pretext of the Arab Spring. It had released a statement imposing prerequisites that the President step down before any dialogue be conducted, at the same time that French troops left Afghanistan after ten years of war.

It is not clear what France would do in Syria but issue consecutive resembling statements that make the opposition foresee, “I can recite the next statement of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs word by word.”