Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad
Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs...
on Friday to punish the "murderers" of anti-regime protesters and accept observers proposed by the Arab League
...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing...
"If he (Assad) is now sincere, he will immediately punish the murderers and accept Arab League observers. He still has such an opportunity," Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told news hounds.
His comments were in response to a question about a rare interview with Assad in which the Syrian leader said he was not responsible for the months-long bloodshed, drawing a distinction between himself and the military.
Davutoglu said Assad's remarks were a kind of "confession."
"He now accepts that security forces might have made a mistake," said Davutoglu. "I wish he had said this in April."
Assad told veteran ABC News interviewer Barbara Walters this week that security forces belonged to "the government" and not him personally.
"We don't kill our people," Assad said. "No government in the world kills its people, unless it's led by a crazy person."