BEIRUT — With his nation plunging toward civil war, Syrian President Bashar Assad said Wednesday that a nationwide referendum would be held this month on a new constitution that is the centerpiece of what he says is a plan to reform the country.
The opposition dismissed the announcement as an effort to buy time, and it was not clear how the a vote could be carried out in a country torn by violence. Large areas of Syria are no longer under government control.
The new constitution would enshrine freedom of speech and worship and end the current monopoly on power held by Assad's Baath party, which has ruled for four decades. The state-run Syrian Arab News Agency said it could "turn Syria into an example to follow in terms of public freedoms and political plurality."
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