Opposition says Assad speech "not enough"

Assad

"The Local Coordinating Committees" which includes the most prominent activists of the Syrian protest movement have said the speech delivered by earlier by President Bashar al-Assad, "strengthened the crisis" and announced the continuation of the "revolution" to achieve its goals.

Syrian activist Suheir Atassi said the speech by al-Assad "does not rise to the level of crisis," and will fuel the protests against his regime.

On his part, Syrian opposition and human rights activists Hassan Abdul Azim said Monday that the speech was "not enough", adding the Syrian president fail to speak about political solutions. "There are many ideas but the issue is still not clear in the speech and non-reassuring."

Abdel-Azim added "he did not decide to withdraw the army and security forces from the cities, and this makes the security solution dominant and not the political solutions."

In a speech at the University of Damascus on Monday, Assad called for a "national dialogue" to move Syria out of the current crisis, confirming that this dialogue can lead to a new constitution.