DAMASCUS: Syria’s ruling Baath Party conference next week to discuss reforms will not bring major change to political life as many Syrians hoped, analysts said on Friday. Autocratic Syria is under mounting US-led pressure to reform, especially following the US-led war in Iraq which Damascus vehemently opposed. It says any changes it makes will not be a response to such pressure.

“It (the meeting) is a step forward but it will not implement all that is needed. Those steps could be insufficient if they are not followed by other moves,” said Ayman Abdul Nour, a pro-reform Baathist political analyst.

“It should not be the final step Syria takes towards reforms.”

Analysts and diplomats expected the party to allow political pluralism and a more open economy and to ease the effects of 42 years under emergency law since the party assumed power in 1963.

But they said Syrians were hoping for more changes and freedom and would be disappointed by the results.

“We expected as Syrians that it will lead to more change but it seems it will not. I am not saying it is bad but it is not as we wanted,” political analyst Sami Mobayed said.

“Change will take more time.” Expatriate Minister Buthaina Shaaban said the conference would offer “unfettered frankness and freedom and allow for criticism, constructive self-criticism”.

But diplomats said not to expect dramatic security and political reforms.

“Everyone was looking forward to this conference and expecting real change from it,” a Western diplomat in Damascus said. “We hoped that they would minimise the role of the Mukhabarat (intelligence) and all other security services, but recent arrests showed that we were wrong.”

Eight members of opposition group Jamal al-Atasi Forum were detained last week when Syrian security raided their houses after a group member read a statement on behalf of the banned Muslim Brotherhood. They were freed on Monday.

Another member is still in custody along with a chief of a human rights organisation.—Reuters