The 15 October announcement that Syrian President Bashar al-Asad has issued a decree "which stipulates forming a committee to prepare for a draft constitution" to replace the current document - which, inter alia, entrusts the ruling Ba'th party with a monopoly of power as the "leader of the state and society" - is unlikely to do much to persuade the insurgents protesting (and dying) daily on the streets of Syrian cities that the Ba'thist leopard has changed it spots. Nor is it likely to reassure the outsiders who have been urging the Syrian leader to answer the protests with reform rather than repression, in particular Turkey, which let it be known for the first time on 18 October that Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu had met with members of the opposition National Council (NC) in Ankara. And despite Syrian threats to take "tough measures" against anyone recognizing the NC, Libya's own National Transitional Council on 19 October expressed "its full recognition of the Syrian National Council as the legitimate ruler of Syria."

Charles Snow