Assad Detachment From Syria Killings Reveals Life in Cocoon - Bloomberg
Ten months into Syria’s unrest, those who know President Bashar al-Assad say there’s good reason he has outlasted other leaders threatened by the Arab Spring uprisings: stone-hearted detachment.
This trait was evident when the Syrian president broke his silence and gave an interview to ABC News, broadcast Dec. 7, in which he refused to accept responsibility for the violence, according to a former friend, Ayman Abdel Nour, a media and public policy consultant who first met Assad as a college student in 1984.
Assad “lives in a cocoon” and opts not to see the reports of torture and killings alleged to have occurred since mid- March, when the protests began, Nour said in an interview after watching the president’s appearance on ABC.
“He wants to deal with things with a cool mind,” said Nour, who now lives in Montreal and runs an opposition website.
As the death toll in Syria passes 5,000, according to United Nations estimates, the international community is increasing economic and political pressure on Assad’s government while showing support for the opposition. Amid this growing isolation, Assad’s demeanor during the interview has prompted Western officials to question the extent to which he is in control and how long he can last.
A day after the interview aired, a U.S. State Department spokesman, Mark Toner, said that Assad’s comments indicated that either the Syrian president is a “tool” or he is “completely disconnected” from reality.