Global pressure on Syria, heightened by the recent Arab League decision to suspend that nation from the organization, has prompted, it seems, a useful change in President Bashar Assad's long-standing policy to run his country outside the parameters of international law and without concern for world opinion. Syria, which has long refused to do so, agreed in principle to allow Arab observers into the country to oversee a plan that is supposed to end violence in that country.
Since specific details of the agreement have yet to be negotiated, there's no certainty when the observers will arrive, or if, once they do, Syria will permit them enough freedom of movement to undertake their mission. Currently, outside observers and members of the media are either barred from entering the country or severely restricted in their movements within its borders. That's made it extraordinarily difficult to obtain accurate information about what is taking place in Syria.
What is certain is that thousands of people have been killed -- U.N. officials say the total is above 3,500 -- since peaceful protesters, inspired by the Arab Spring movement elsewhere in the Muslim world, took to the streets to demand democratic reform of their authoritarian state. Assad's response has been brutal, according to eyewitness reports and accounts smuggled out of the country. Indeed, the death total rose over the weekend in continuing clashes between Assad's security forces and anti-government protesters.
The mission of the observers would be to protect civilians, to help end the spiral of violence and to monitor a cease-fire that Syria has agreed to but has yet to implement. The question, of course, is whether Syria really will admit the observers and establish a cease-fire., The weekend concession may be merely a ploy to relieve international criticism of the Assad regime.
If recent history is a guide, any agreement with Assad should be viewed with skepticism. Syria has agreed to various proposals in principle in the past, but then refused to honor the agreement. There is widespread international belief that will be the case in this instance, too.
A State Department spokesman said that the United States has seen no signs that Syria will honor the agreement, adding that the U.S.. still believes Assad should make way for a democratic transition. Syrian dissidents agree with that assessment. "We have warned in the past and we warn again that these are the methods of the regime to waste time," said a spokesman for the Syrian National Council, a respected umbrella group of Assad opponents.
Syria should promptly honor its agreement on observers. If it does not, the global community, led by the Arab League, should enact the promised economic boycott that Assad clearly hopes to forestall. That might not bring an immediate end to the suffering and near-civil war in Syria, but it will prove, at least, that failing to honor one's promise to the world does not come without cost.