DAMASCUS // Emboldened opposition activists and the Assad regime both sought to capitalise on a rare public meeting of dissidents in the Syrian capital, as the struggle to determine the country's future continues.
Monday's conference in a Damascus hotel, the first large gathering of opposition figures inside Syriafor years, is part of a battle over public opinion between pro-democracy activists and a government that has been trying to stamp out a popular uprising.
While the balance of power still favours an entrenched, autocratic regime, dissidents are working to tilt the scales in their favour.
At stake are the perceptions of the international community, crucially, Russia and Turkey, and, more importantly, Syria's silent majority. It continues to harbour reservations about revolutionary change but has also had confidence in a decades-old regime profoundly shaken.
Opposition activists, regime loyalists and analysts agree the eight-hour long conference, which could not have gone ahead without at least tacit official approval, offered a series of potential costs and benefits for both sides.
"The regime would never have let the meeting take place unless it thought it would get something out of it," said George Sabra, a long-time political dissident who boycotted the conference.
"They did get some significant benefits from it, but so did the opposition. It is hard to know where the balance lays, who won the most?"
The authorities wanted to use the meeting as a way of deflecting growing international and domestic criticism over their violent crackdown on protesters, analysts and dissidents said, while buying more time to carry out military operations against demonstration hot-spots.
Although President Bashar Al Assad has held out the prospect of political reforms, he has insisted a security crackdown must continue because it is targeting Islamist militants rather than civilised protesters with legitimate demands.
Widespread scepticism has greeted that narrative both at home and abroad, with critics saying the regime has proven itself incapable of reform. However, many inside Syria do give the official explanation credence, while Moscow has used the promise of reforms and fear of Islamic terrorism to shield Damascus from US and EU pressure inside the United Nations.
"The authorities can point to the meeting and say 'look we are reforming, we've let these opposition figures talk in public'," one dissident said. "They will also use it to try to show Syrians that they are reasonable, that they are not shooting and jailing peaceful dissidents, only terrorists."
State-controlled media, as well as international news organisations, covered the conference.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a member of the ruling Baath party said he believed the meeting would highlight divisions within the fractured opposition, and show the public there was no credible alternative to the government.
That analysis seemed to be proven at least partially correct, with some opposition activists boycotting the gathering or denouncing it as serving regime interests while protesters are still being killed in the streets. More than 1,400 have died at the hands of security services since the uprising began in March, human-rights groups say.
Delegates, and even some who had criticised the meeting in advance, acknowledged such risks but insisted it had, overall, been a success.
"It hit two targets," said Anwar Al Bunni, a leading civil-rights campaigner. "It established the principle of the opposition meeting in public, which is something major here, and it produced a concluding statement that all activists can unite around."
Meeting delegates pledged to continue their peaceful struggle for democracy, while demanding an end to the security crackdown, the release of all political prisoners and recognition of the right to hold public anti-government protests.
Another dissident said a vital nonsectarian message had also been conveyed. Key figures taking part were from Syria's minority communities - Alawite, Christian and Ismaili.
The regime has projected itself as their defender against a Sunni majority and, while many members of these minorities criticise the status quo, they appear to be most alarmed by the prospect of it changing.
"To see Alawites and Christians publicly making the case for democracy and saying there is nothing to fear from it sends a strong message that this revolution is not about sectarianism," the dissident said.
Authorities have also sought to portray demonstrators as proxies for foreign powers, a charge that has drawn oxygen from opposition gatherings in Turkey and Europe. Having a meeting inside Syria would help counter those claims, analysts and dissidents said.
"The regime can no longer just say this is a foreign plot," said one activist. "They also cannot talk about terrorists because the opposition made clear it wants peaceful change."
Since the conference took place, it has been widely discussed among friends, families and work colleagues in Damascus, according to Syrians.
That debate is another factor dissidents believe works in their favour, propagating the seeds of the democracy they hope to establish.
"Four months ago most Syrians didn't know what 'opposition' meant, now everyone it talking about it and seeing it on the news, it has opened a space for debate that will be hard to close down again," said the independent analyst.
