Bashshar and foriegn pressures

Look at this account of a meeting between a team of Jordanian Arab nationalists and Bashshar Al-Asad.  Bashshar said that he enacted neo-liberal "reforms" in Syria only under pressure from the West in the wake of the Hariri assassination.  But is this not a man whose supporters brag that he never ever succumbs to foreign pressures? Which way is it?