Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad used his third televised appearance in the
three months since anti-regime protests first erupted to deliver a
monotonous, rambling and technocratic speech to a handpicked audience at
Damascus University on Monday — and while the autocratic leader promised a
national dialogue, the offer is unlikely to damper the violent dissent
rocking his country.
There was little new in his more than hour-long address. In many ways, it
was basically a repeat of his first speech before Parliament on March 30,
