Bashar al-Assad has been shrewder than Muammer Gaddafi, dispensing with vicious threats in favour of softer language and vague promises, while his security forces on the ground wage as brutal a campaign as the colonel’s.

This dual strategy might have worked for a while, but no longer. No one was fooled by Mr Assad’s Monday speech and his talk of new laws and committees and possible constitutional changes.

A regime that has brutally killed an estimated 1,400 protesters over the past three months, tortured people and mutilated children, occupied cities and collectively punished populations cannot be reformed.”

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