Assad said that national dialogue was underway. However he pledged not to reform the country under chaos, noting that Syria has been a target of foreign conspiracies for geopolitical and other reasons. .

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said that national dialogue was underway in the country. However he pledged not to reform the country under chaos, noting that Syria has been a target of foreign conspiracies for geopolitical and other reasons.
In a spe

ech delivered at Damascus University on Monday, al-Assad promised parliamentary elections in August and a complete reform package by September.

He stated that he would ask the justice ministry to study expanding a recent amnesty, but said it was important to differentiate between "saboteurs" and people with legitimate demands.
Al-Assad warned that in listening to calls for reforms, the government must distinguish between people with legitimate needs and "saboteurs".

He also called on all refugees to return to their homes, and guaranteed their safety, saying that the "army is meant to protect the citizens."

Al-Assad said his government was instituting a process of national dialogue through an authority designated for the purpose. He said that about 100 people from various backgrounds had been invited to take part in the process.

He also said that Syria was “at a turning point after difficult days”, vowing the country would emerge stronger in the face of the plotting against it.
Offering his condolences to the families of martyrs from the unrest rocking the country since mid-March, al-Assad said there could be "no development without stability, no reform in the face of sabotage and chaos."

He also classified those who were taking part in the current unrest into three broad categories: “those who were peaceful and had legitimate concerns; those who were vandals and outlaws and finally radical and blasphemous intellectuals".

It is al-Assad’s the third speech to the Syrian people since the unrest has started last March.
On March 30, two weeks after the protests started, the Syrian president addressed parliament, describing the unrest as a conspiracy orchestrate by the country’s enemies.

Two weeks later, on April 16, al-Assad announced that the emergency law, in force in Syria since 1963, would be abolished. In that speech he also called for a national dialogue as he announced a package of reforms.