mr president syria is an important country in the middle east and has a vital role to play in reducing the ability of iran to support terrorist actions via its proxies hezbollah and hamas against israel
syria also has a habit of fomenting unrest in lebanon which syria still regards as barely sovereign and within its sphere of influence
syria is also a secular regime
in fact it remains the only vestige now of the once powerful ba athist party which ruled iraq as well so things like women's rights are advanced
however overall it remains a brutal one-party dictatorship
the detention of muhannad al hassani as a leading human rights defender is alarming
if syria really wants us to support an eu association agreement it should please release mr al hassani immediately and end the persecution of human rights defenders such as mr al hassani
