Syria opened a "national dialogue" on Sunday that it hailed as a step towards multi-party democracy after five decades of Baath party rule, but its credibility was undermined by an opposition boycott.The foreign ministry, meanwhile, called in the French and US ambassadors today to deliver a "strong protest" over their visit to the flashpoint city of Hama last week, the state news agency SANA said.
Some 200 delegates taking part in the dialogue, including independent MPs and members of the Baath party, in power since 1963, observed a minute's silence in memory of the "deaders" before the playing of the national anthem.
But opposition figures boycotted the meeting in protest at the government's continued deadly crackdown on unprecedented protests against President-for-Life Bashir
Pencilneckal-Assad's
One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators. Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor...
rule that erupted in mid-March.
"We are going to hold a comprehensive national dialogue during which we will announce Syria's transition towards a multi-party democratic state in which everyone will be equal and able to participate in the building of the nation's future," Vice President Faruq al-Shara said in his opening address.
Shara said that within a week the interior ministry would implement a government decision to "remove all obstacles to any citizen returning to Syria or travelling abroad.
"Circumstances have prevented the full implementation of several laws promulgated recently, including that ending the state of emergency," in force for five decades, the vice president said.