In honor of the annual Jasmine Festival of Damascus, held every April, Assad has instructed citizens to plant at least one jasmine plant, so that the city will be infused with the pristine white flower’s magnificent fragrance. Clearly, Assad believes he can ride the revolutionary horse without being thrown from it.

Other factors also contribute to make Assad’s grip firmer than Mubarak’s. Among them is a reluctance in Washington and Jerusalem to see him go. Some of the savviest Syrians on Twitter – albeit an elite demographic – were tweeting with outrage when US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on March 27 that “many members of Congress of both parties who have gone to Syria in recent months have said they believe he’s a reformer.”

There seems to be a clear message that the US would like to give “young” Bashar, a 45-year-old educated in London, a bit more time to figure things out. Last year, Washington sent its first ambassador to Syria since 2005, and the Obama Administration has continued to try to engage Assad on several tracks. The road to Iran, naturally, goes through Damascus.
http://www.jpost.com/Jerusalem-Report/The-Region/The-Jasmine-Scent-of-Damascus