Phil Sands, The National
DAMASCUS // Young protesters and veteran dissidents have held their first large-scale meeting inside Syria, bringing divided opposition groups a step closer to unification.
About 300 anti-regime figures took part in the closed meeting at a farmhouse in Dreesh, 15 kilometres north of Damascus, on Saturday, with a follow-up news conference in the capital yesterday morning.
It was the largest anti-regime gathering inside Syria since the Baath party seized power in a military coup in the 1960s.
Even more significant than the size of the gathering was the bringing together of experienced pro-democracy activists, many of whom have campaigned for civil rights in Syria for decades, and the new generation of young revolutionaries who have shaken the autocratic regime with unprecedented street protests.{…}