Syrian parliament urges Assad to clarify 'reforms'

Syrian labourers in Lebanon chant slogans during a protest to show support to their President Bashar al-Assad (portrait) outside the Syrian Embassy in Beirut yesterday.Photo: AFP

Syria's parliament has asked President Bashar al-Assad to explain in detail a string of reforms promised in response to a wave of popular dissent across the country, an MP said yesterday.
"On Sunday night, MPs requested that the president clarify the measures that authorities have announced and urged him to address parliament and explain," MP Mohammed Habash told AFP.
Parliamentarians also held a minute of silence, he said, to honour those killed in two weeks of unrest in Syria, where demonstrators earlier this month began taking to the streets to demand change.
The security situation in the country has worsened in past days, with reports of gangs wreaking havoc in the northern port city of Latakia and sporadic bouts of violence in the southern governorate of Daraa.
Rights groups have put the death toll at around 130, with Daraa -- a tribal area at the Jordanian border -- sustaining the most casualties.