Konflikten i Syrien

DAMASCUS // Tens of thousands of Syrians demonstrated in favour of the president yesterday - showing that Bashar Al Assad's regime still commands significant support as it seeks to end a seven-month uprising.

State-run media claimed one million people attended the rally in Damascus, with video taken from a helicopter showing a vast crowd filling the streets and squares in the heart of the capital.

Many schools, government offices and businesses closed, with the day taken as an unofficial holiday.

Opposition figures were quick to dismiss the rally as carefully stage-managed, saying that state employees and soldiers dressed as civilians were all but required to attend to boost numbers.

But Mr Al Assad still enjoys high levels of support in Syria, of the kind usually reserved for film stars or musicians in the West, rather than leaders of state.

"I love Bashar," said a young teenage girl on Tuesday night, as she and her middle-class family prepared for yesterday's rally.

Residents of Sahnaiya, a suburb south of Damascus, she and her four siblings were excited about the prospect of attending the event, treating it as an outing and a chance to show support for the president.

None of them were officially required to attend and their mother - fastidious in ensuring they are all well educated and do not shirk classes - had given permission for them to miss school for the occasion. She and her husband, a doctor, are strong Assad supporters.

"We have taken part in a previous rally," the mother said. "We were even on television."

That kind of loyalty continues to baffle some opposition figures and exemplifies the polarisation that has taken place in Syrian society since the uprising began in March.

Most Syrians back President Assad, but you'd never know from western media
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When coverage of an unfolding drama ceases to be fair and turns into a propaganda weapon, inconvenient facts get suppressed. So it is with the results of a recent YouGov Siraj poll on Syria commissioned by The Doha Debates, funded by the Qatar Foundation. Qatar's royal family has taken one of the most hawkish lines against Assad – the emir has just called for Arab troops to intervene – so it was good that The Doha Debates published the poll on its website. The pity is that it was ignored by almost all media outlets in every western country whose government has called for Assad to go.

The key finding was that while most Arabs outside Syria feel the president should resign, attitudes in the country are different. Some 55% of Syrians want Assad to stay, motivated by fear of civil war – a spectre that is not theoretical as it is for those who live outside Syria's borders. What is less good news for the Assad regime is that the poll also found that half the Syrians who accept him staying in power believe he must usher in free elections in the near future. Assad claims he is about to do that, a point he has repeated in his latest speeches. But it is vital that he publishes the election law as soon as possible, permits political parties and makes a commitment to allow independent monitors to watch the poll.