Neck of the woods

My unreliable source reports that Bashar al-Assad, strongman of Syria, may be amenable to a new solution to end the civil strife in his country. He is apparently talking with his closest inner circle, those who are alive, and has mentioned it to the Iranians, Hezbollah, the Russians, and the Chinese. My source tells me that he hesitates to confide his new plan in Lakhdar al-Ibrahimi (Mr. Green) because, as he claims “Lakhdar is a big mouth, can’t keep secrets. I might as well confide an in an escort“.
The plan, allegedly, entails new elections before next summer, to be supervised by Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton and Michael Gorbachev (he knows that Deng Xiaoping is dead). In the interim, political activity will be open. Al-Assad has been studying the other Arab uprisings and has learned his lesson. He knows, as they say, which way the stick floats. He sees who has been winning all elections after the overthrow of the dictators. He plans to establish his own political party and, get this: it will be an Islamist Party! He intends to compete fairly with the Free Syrian Salafi Army Party and the Syrian National Council Muslim Brotherhood Party.
He is reported to be optimistic about his chances of winning the presidency again.

Cheers
mhg
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