Today’s Asharq al-Awsat, the London-based pan-Arab daily, reports on the role of “Syrian embassies abroad in sabotaging and subverting any movement or activity aiming at expressing solidarity with the Syrian people, and at taking a stand condemning the regime’s repressive actions.” In Berlin, the Syrian embassy kept one Syrian opposition figure, Burhan Ghalyoun, from participating in a conference of Arab intellectuals. According to Lebanese novelist Elias Khoury, the organizers of the event received direct threats from Syrian diplomatic officials as well as Palestinian figures allied with the Assad regime.