Bashar al-Assad, Syria's president, is fighting for survival. Since assuming power five years ago, the reluctant dictator has made almost every mistake in the book. He has suffered for his errors - Lebanon foremost among them - and failed to profit from his halting domestic reforms, unrequited assistance offered to a Bush administration mired in Iraq and lukewarm démarches towards Israel.
The report of Detlev Mehlis, the United Nations commissioner, earlier this month, a product of a Security Council resolution demanding Syrian co-operation with his investigation into the killing of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri, draws the noose of international condemnation tighter around Damascus. But it also provides Mr Assad with time in which he can either save himself or provide the hangman with a stronger rope.
