UK Telegraph - Syria: Bashar al-Assad urged to take up offer of asylum in Arab world

[pampango]

Political leaders across the Middle East have concluded that the Syrian strongman is doomed after eight months of bloodshed since the uprising against his rule erupted in March, US officials have said.

Mr Feltman did not identify which states were willing to take in the Syrian leader, but political figures in the region gave warning that time was running out for Mr Assad to make a decision.

"He basically has two options," a Jordanian official said. "He can either stay in Syria and die in ignominy with his body being dragged through the streets and his country facing bloody chaos. "Or he can choose salvation, both for himself and for Syria, and live a quiet life abroad."

The official would not confirm whether Jordan was among the states that had offered Mr Assad refuge, although he suggested that Saudi Arabia may have done. The Saudis have a pedigree of taking in former dictators from Idi Amin, the late Ugandan dictator, to Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, former Tunisian president who was toppled at the beginning of the year.

But Mr Assad has always had a tricky relationship with Saudi Arabia in part over its hostility to Iran, Syria's closest ally, and also because of a long standing rivalry between Damascus and Riyadh for influence over Lebanon. Moreover, the Syrian leader has shown little appetite for either reining in the violence his security forces have inflicted on protesters in the past eight months or for heeding the pleas of his Arab peers.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/8881868/Syria-Bashar-al-Assad-urged-to-take-up-offer-of-asylum-in-Arab-world.html

[TheWraith]

1. Maybe having seen Ghaddafi chased down and dragged out of a sewer pipe will convince him.

A comfortable refuge somewhere is preferable to getting beaten to death in the street.

[DCBob]

2. Another one about to bite the dust..

amazing the changes happening in the ME without direct US military intervention.