Assad's Unexpected Opportunity

Najib Mikati opens a new door for the young Syrian president to rebrand himself to the Lebanese.



When a Lebanese hears "Bashar al Assad", he is likely to start thinking of the likes of Rustom Ghazaleh, Nabih Berri and Omar Karami. People whose names, to say the least, send shivers down the opposition's spine.

When the young Syrian president took over from his father, he branded himself as a "young, western educated reformer".
He internalized that image further into the Syrian people's imagination by taking steps that are both symbolic and useful: he brought the internet and mobile telecommunications to Syria, he filled his cabinets with younger technocrats and he got married to an equally "western educated" presentable woman with whom he could easily appear on the covers of Hello or Paris Match.

Yet in Lebanon (which has higher standards of modernity), there was no "campaign” whatsoever: the Lebanese still associate the Syrian regime with old, haggard, retro people who want to prevent the region from progressing.
This is precisely where Najib Mikati, The new caretaker Lebanese prime minister can be useful to his pal. He's youngish, sharp looking, rich, calm, and is a mogul in the telecommunications industry, plus he has shown that he could seduce most parties in Lebanese politics and more crucially, the international community.

In the Lebanese commentariat, there are two schools of thoughts concerning the young Bashar Al Assad:

One that thinks that he is even worse than his father and that all the changes he is doing in Syria are cosmetic (strong champions of this theory are this Lebanese blogger and this Syrian one).

The others, like me (and most European governments), think that Mr. Assad is well intentioned but very weak, and hence needs all the help the world can provide him with. To these people, Najib Mikati is a welcome and unexpected ally.