News / International
U.S.A and its European allies calls for Bashar al-Assad to step down
19 Aug 2011 at 05:43hrs | Views
U.S.A and its European allies on Thursday called for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down and outlined a broad campaign to force him from power by targeting his regime's finances, including an embargo on Damascus's oil sales.
With Mr. Assad's forces engaged in a lethal crackdown on dissent, President Barack Obama, in coordination with the leaders of the U.K., France, Germany and the European Union, said Mr. Assad had squandered his opportunity to liberalize Syria's political system and predicted his government's collapse is now inevitable.
The unified Western campaign to dislodge Mr. Assad marks an escalation of previous condemnation of the bloodshed in Syria, and paralleled increasingly tough positions against Syria by leading Arab and Muslim countries, in particular Turkey and Saudi Arabia, which are seen as having the most leverage over Damascus.
"We have consistently said that President Assad must lead a democratic transition or get out of the way," Mr. Obama said. "He has not led. For the sake of the Syrian people, the time has come for President Assad to step aside."
Late Thursday, activists in Syria reported security forces opening fire on protesters marching after the evening prayers in the suburbs of the capital Damascus and in Homs, while dozens of people were detained in home raids or random arrests in Damascus and Aleppo, a regime stronghold.
Bashar Ja'afari, Syria's ambassador to the United Nations, said on Thursday, that the U.S. and other Security Council members are "waging a "diplomatic and humanitarian war" against Syria. "Show me an international law that allows anyone to question the legitimacy of any president."
U.S. officials said they fear retaliation by the Syrian leader's supporters, including possibly a second attack on the U.S. Embassy in Damascus.
U.S. and European officials admitted that they don't expect Mr. Assad to bow to international pressure and resign. Many acknowledge that violence inside Syria could intensify in coming months; Mr. Assad's security forces appear to be willing to fight until the end.
Mr. Assad's backers predicted the U.S. and European intervention in Syria's internal affairs would breed more support for the Syrian leader.
"Since when does it matter what Obama tells the Syrian people to do?" said Mahmoud Akkam, a leading Sunni Islamic scholar in Aleppo. "He is neither a defender of the Syrian people nor of our security."
The Obama administration's moves followed weeks of internal deliberations about how aggressively to seek Mr. Assad's ouster, said senior U.S. officials involved in the debate.
The uprising against Mr. Assad follows a string of political rebellions that have broken out against Arab dictatorships this year and toppled longtime autocrats in Tunisia and Egypt. The Obama administration has sought to balance calls for political liberalization with strategic interests and the security of key allies Saudi Arabia and Israel.
An allied military operation since March in Libya'where Col. Moammar Gadhafi is clinging to power'complicated the case for further Western intervention in the region's uprisings, despite the political cover and eventual military support Arab states provided for the multistate effort against the embattled leader.
The White House has been concerned that Mr. Assad's overthrow could fuel a sectarian civil war that could spread into neighboring countries, such as Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq. U.S. officials also worried that an explicit U.S. call for Mr. Assad to step down, without a cohesive international strategy to pressure Damascus, could backfire and make the West appear weak.
The U.S. and its allies increasingly view Mr. Assad's fate as tied to its broader struggle against Iran for regional influence and power. Tehran is Damascus's closest strategic ally, and Iran and Syria coordinate closely in funding and arming proxies in Lebanon, Iraq and the Palestinian territories. At the same time, U.S. officials had hoped that Mr. Assad, who succeeded his dictator father, Hafez al-Assad, in 2000, would embrace democratic change and slacken his ties to Iran.
The upsurge in violence by Mr. Assad's security forces since the onset of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan ultimately convinced the U.S. and its allies that those hopes were in vain. In recent days, Mr. Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton accelerated their consultations with key European and Mideast leaders to form a unified front.
"We lost patience with him'the timing was driven by the horrific actions of the Syrian regime," said a senior U.S. official involved in the diplomacy. "Assad has a perfect record of empty promises."
The Obama administration said it had immediately barred the purchase of all Syrian energy products, which U.S. officials estimated to be the equivalent of 6,000 barrels per day. Washington also said it had placed a broad ban on any U.S. business dealings with the Syrian government and froze any of Damascus's assets held in the U.S. On Thursday, Britain, France, Portugal and Germany said they would begin drafting a sanctions resolution as well.
Such a move could deliver a crippling blow to Mr. Assad's financial lifeline. Roughly a third of Syrian government revenue comes from oil sales, according to Syrian government statistics. And about 95% of Syrian oil is sold to European buyers. The EU is also Syria's largest single trading partner, with €7.2 billion ($10.4 billion) in business last year.
Major European companies involved in Syria's energy sector include France's Total SA and Royal Dutch Shell PLC. Representatives from both companies said they would comply with all international sanctions on Syria.
On Thursday, the EU's foreign-affairs office circulated an options paper as the basis for Friday's discussions. The paper outlines four possible measures to hit Syria's energy sector, said diplomats who have reviewed it. These include: a ban on all Syrian crude oil exports; a ban on EU sales to Syria of refined products; a ban on the sale of specialized equipment that Syria needs for exploration and production; and so-called investment bans that would deny Syria other energy expertise.
"The [Syrian] president's promises of reform have lost all credibility as reforms cannot succeed under permanent repression," said the EU's top foreign-affairs official, Catherine Ashton. "The EU notes the complete loss of Bashar al-Assad's legitimacy in the eyes of the Syrian people and the necessity for him to step aside."
On Wednesday evening, Mr. Assad told U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in a phone call that "the military and police operations had stopped," according to a U.N. statement. But the announcement came as activists said security forces continued to open fire on protesters in the evening hours. The U.N. Human Rights Council is expected to convene a special session on Syria early next week.
Mr. Assad continues to have some supporters among world powers. So far, China, Russia and India have resisted U.S. and EU efforts to win U.N. Security Council support for sanctions against Damascus or possibly even refer Mr. Assad's regime to the International Criminal Court in The Hague on the charge of crimes against humanity.
Moscow, along with Iran, is a chief arms supplier to Syria and continues to maintain a naval facility in the Syrian port city of Tartous. On Thursday, the head of Russia's top arms exporter said his company intended to continue shipping arms to Syria.
Navi Pillay, the U.N.'s High Commissioner for Human Rights, recommended in a briefing to the Security Council in New York on Thursday that it refer a case of possible crimes against humanity by Syrian authorities to the ICC, but she later said, "There was no comment on my recommendation [from the council]. I do not hold out much hope."
The U.S. and its Western allies on the Security Council support an ICC referral, but it is opposed by Russia, which has veto power, and other council members.
In Syria, protesters welcomed the U.S. and Europeans' call with a mixture of relief that powerful allies were rallying to their side'and fear that it would provoke an even-more violent backlash from the government, which has argued it is fighting Islamist militants backed by a foreign plot.
"This is a truly baffling situation now," Louay Hussain, a writer and long-time opposition member, said in a telephone interview from Damascus. "The statements will raise the morale of the protesting street, but the authorities will cling on to it as proof of the foreign conspiracy they face."
Two major opposition groups, the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood and the grass-roots Local Coordination Committees'a new activist group born out of this year's uprising'said the statement was a positive step toward more effective international action against Mr. Assad's regime.
"We've been working on this for a while, and it's very significant for the Syrian people to hear from the U.S. and the international community that we're not alone in this battle," said Mohammad Abdallah, a Washington-based spokesperson from the Local Coordination Committees.
Mr. Abdallah was among a group of U.S-based Syrian opposition members that met with Mrs. Clinton for the first time earlier this month. "Syrians to the last minute had believed that the U.S. wanted Assad to stay, that they are invested in him," Mr. Abdallah said.
With Mr. Assad's forces engaged in a lethal crackdown on dissent, President Barack Obama, in coordination with the leaders of the U.K., France, Germany and the European Union, said Mr. Assad had squandered his opportunity to liberalize Syria's political system and predicted his government's collapse is now inevitable.
The unified Western campaign to dislodge Mr. Assad marks an escalation of previous condemnation of the bloodshed in Syria, and paralleled increasingly tough positions against Syria by leading Arab and Muslim countries, in particular Turkey and Saudi Arabia, which are seen as having the most leverage over Damascus.
"We have consistently said that President Assad must lead a democratic transition or get out of the way," Mr. Obama said. "He has not led. For the sake of the Syrian people, the time has come for President Assad to step aside."
Late Thursday, activists in Syria reported security forces opening fire on protesters marching after the evening prayers in the suburbs of the capital Damascus and in Homs, while dozens of people were detained in home raids or random arrests in Damascus and Aleppo, a regime stronghold.
Bashar Ja'afari, Syria's ambassador to the United Nations, said on Thursday, that the U.S. and other Security Council members are "waging a "diplomatic and humanitarian war" against Syria. "Show me an international law that allows anyone to question the legitimacy of any president."
U.S. officials said they fear retaliation by the Syrian leader's supporters, including possibly a second attack on the U.S. Embassy in Damascus.
U.S. and European officials admitted that they don't expect Mr. Assad to bow to international pressure and resign. Many acknowledge that violence inside Syria could intensify in coming months; Mr. Assad's security forces appear to be willing to fight until the end.
Mr. Assad's backers predicted the U.S. and European intervention in Syria's internal affairs would breed more support for the Syrian leader.
"Since when does it matter what Obama tells the Syrian people to do?" said Mahmoud Akkam, a leading Sunni Islamic scholar in Aleppo. "He is neither a defender of the Syrian people nor of our security."
The Obama administration's moves followed weeks of internal deliberations about how aggressively to seek Mr. Assad's ouster, said senior U.S. officials involved in the debate.
The uprising against Mr. Assad follows a string of political rebellions that have broken out against Arab dictatorships this year and toppled longtime autocrats in Tunisia and Egypt. The Obama administration has sought to balance calls for political liberalization with strategic interests and the security of key allies Saudi Arabia and Israel.
An allied military operation since March in Libya'where Col. Moammar Gadhafi is clinging to power'complicated the case for further Western intervention in the region's uprisings, despite the political cover and eventual military support Arab states provided for the multistate effort against the embattled leader.
The White House has been concerned that Mr. Assad's overthrow could fuel a sectarian civil war that could spread into neighboring countries, such as Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq. U.S. officials also worried that an explicit U.S. call for Mr. Assad to step down, without a cohesive international strategy to pressure Damascus, could backfire and make the West appear weak.
The U.S. and its allies increasingly view Mr. Assad's fate as tied to its broader struggle against Iran for regional influence and power. Tehran is Damascus's closest strategic ally, and Iran and Syria coordinate closely in funding and arming proxies in Lebanon, Iraq and the Palestinian territories. At the same time, U.S. officials had hoped that Mr. Assad, who succeeded his dictator father, Hafez al-Assad, in 2000, would embrace democratic change and slacken his ties to Iran.
The upsurge in violence by Mr. Assad's security forces since the onset of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan ultimately convinced the U.S. and its allies that those hopes were in vain. In recent days, Mr. Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton accelerated their consultations with key European and Mideast leaders to form a unified front.
The Obama administration said it had immediately barred the purchase of all Syrian energy products, which U.S. officials estimated to be the equivalent of 6,000 barrels per day. Washington also said it had placed a broad ban on any U.S. business dealings with the Syrian government and froze any of Damascus's assets held in the U.S. On Thursday, Britain, France, Portugal and Germany said they would begin drafting a sanctions resolution as well.
Such a move could deliver a crippling blow to Mr. Assad's financial lifeline. Roughly a third of Syrian government revenue comes from oil sales, according to Syrian government statistics. And about 95% of Syrian oil is sold to European buyers. The EU is also Syria's largest single trading partner, with €7.2 billion ($10.4 billion) in business last year.
Major European companies involved in Syria's energy sector include France's Total SA and Royal Dutch Shell PLC. Representatives from both companies said they would comply with all international sanctions on Syria.
On Thursday, the EU's foreign-affairs office circulated an options paper as the basis for Friday's discussions. The paper outlines four possible measures to hit Syria's energy sector, said diplomats who have reviewed it. These include: a ban on all Syrian crude oil exports; a ban on EU sales to Syria of refined products; a ban on the sale of specialized equipment that Syria needs for exploration and production; and so-called investment bans that would deny Syria other energy expertise.
"The [Syrian] president's promises of reform have lost all credibility as reforms cannot succeed under permanent repression," said the EU's top foreign-affairs official, Catherine Ashton. "The EU notes the complete loss of Bashar al-Assad's legitimacy in the eyes of the Syrian people and the necessity for him to step aside."
On Wednesday evening, Mr. Assad told U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in a phone call that "the military and police operations had stopped," according to a U.N. statement. But the announcement came as activists said security forces continued to open fire on protesters in the evening hours. The U.N. Human Rights Council is expected to convene a special session on Syria early next week.
Mr. Assad continues to have some supporters among world powers. So far, China, Russia and India have resisted U.S. and EU efforts to win U.N. Security Council support for sanctions against Damascus or possibly even refer Mr. Assad's regime to the International Criminal Court in The Hague on the charge of crimes against humanity.
Moscow, along with Iran, is a chief arms supplier to Syria and continues to maintain a naval facility in the Syrian port city of Tartous. On Thursday, the head of Russia's top arms exporter said his company intended to continue shipping arms to Syria.
Navi Pillay, the U.N.'s High Commissioner for Human Rights, recommended in a briefing to the Security Council in New York on Thursday that it refer a case of possible crimes against humanity by Syrian authorities to the ICC, but she later said, "There was no comment on my recommendation [from the council]. I do not hold out much hope."
The U.S. and its Western allies on the Security Council support an ICC referral, but it is opposed by Russia, which has veto power, and other council members.
In Syria, protesters welcomed the U.S. and Europeans' call with a mixture of relief that powerful allies were rallying to their side'and fear that it would provoke an even-more violent backlash from the government, which has argued it is fighting Islamist militants backed by a foreign plot.
"This is a truly baffling situation now," Louay Hussain, a writer and long-time opposition member, said in a telephone interview from Damascus. "The statements will raise the morale of the protesting street, but the authorities will cling on to it as proof of the foreign conspiracy they face."
Two major opposition groups, the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood and the grass-roots Local Coordination Committees'a new activist group born out of this year's uprising'said the statement was a positive step toward more effective international action against Mr. Assad's regime.
"We've been working on this for a while, and it's very significant for the Syrian people to hear from the U.S. and the international community that we're not alone in this battle," said Mohammad Abdallah, a Washington-based spokesperson from the Local Coordination Committees.
Mr. Abdallah was among a group of U.S-based Syrian opposition members that met with Mrs. Clinton for the first time earlier this month. "Syrians to the last minute had believed that the U.S. wanted Assad to stay, that they are invested in him," Mr. Abdallah said.
Source - online.wsj.com
