Makes you wonder, do they really think that this will help people sway to the pro-Syria side when they keep killing anti-Syria leaders?
Maybe they are hoping for chaos, in which the pro-Syria faction can take power. Or maybe they are trying to save face from losing it- only to see it head toward democracy *the horror*. The Arab world is not pleased with this, you can bet. Bashir Assad has probably felt the heat to do something about it.
Syrian leaders use the USSR model for how they run a government. Its a thuggish dictatorship that is part commie and part mob family.