Both anti-regime and loyalists demonstrate at Syrian embassy in Cairo

Syrian president Bashar El Assad's loyalists and protesters demonstrated today in front of the Syrian embassy on Boules Hana street in Giza

The face-off protests were both organized yesterday after Syrian president Bashar's El Assad speech. According to the Shabab Syria El Hurra opposition group on Facebook, the Syrian embassy organized the pro-Assad protest to show how Syrians in Egypt supported El Assad and his speech. Syrian opposition groups announced on Facebook yesterday that the embassy in Cairo threatened Syrian scholarhip students in Egypt, saying they would not be allowed to return to Syria if they did not particpate in the protest. These students apparently contacted other Syrian friends in Egypt and told them they had to counter-protest at the embassy at the same time in order to show the media that Egypt's Syrian community does not support El Assad and his reform agenda as the embassy had claimed.
The anti-Assad pro-democracy protest was smaller but determined. The Syrian protesters brought Syrian, Turkish and also Kurdish flags with them. There were anti-Assad banners with photos of the latest victims of the security crackdowns in Syria, such as the child Hamzah El Khatib. There were banners thanking Turkish officials as well as Hollywood star and UNCHR ambassador Angelina Jolie, who visited Syrian refugee camps on the Turkish border last Friday. Protesters chanted pro-freedom slogans saluting Turkey, Egypt and areas in Syria currently witnessing protests and security crackdowns like Daraa, Hama and Aleppo.
The pro-Assad demonstration was louder as it made use of speakers blaring pro-Assad songs and chants, and even Dabka folkoric dancers. The demonstrators included Syrian men, women, students, children and embassy staff as well. Al Dunia TV channel was also there to document how the Syrian community in Egypt supported and accepted El Assad's promises and were standing with him against the threats and conspiracies facing the Syrian nation. Embassy staff made sure that reporters were granted access to cover the demonstration and see how popular the regime was among the Syrian community in Egypt.
The pro-Assad demonstrators considered the other protest one of non-Syrians, or Syrians paid by the Syrian opposition abroad, and many wondered out loud what their demands were now that the Syrian regime has lifted the emergency law, granted a general pardon for crimes committed before 31 May, and changed governors. Several pro-democracy protesters however said the pro-Assad protest was an example of the embassy's intimidation of Syrian students in Egypt and that it was comprised mostly of the families of embassy staff.
Security forces from the police, as well as military police, secured the area, separating both groups and making sure that the scene did not turn chaotic and ugly. They were seperated by security cordons and neither group was allowed to advance against the other.