President Barack Obama of the United States read out the riot act to President Bashar al-Assad of Syria on Thursday by warning him that he had a choice of leading a transition to democracy or “get out of the way.”
“While Libya has faced violence on the greatest scale, it is not the only place where leaders have turned to repression to remain in power. Most recently, the Syrian regime has chosen the path of murder and the mass arrests of its citizens,” Mr. Obama said in a globally televised speech at the State Department in Washington. “The United States has condemned these actions, and working with the international community we have stepped up our sanctions on the Syrian regime – including sanctions announced yesterday on President Assad and those around him.”
Mr. Obama continued: “The Syrian people have shown their courage in demanding a transition to democracy. President Assad now has a choice: he can lead that transition, or get out of the way. The Syrian government must stop shooting demonstrators and allow peaceful protests; release political prisoners and stop unjust arrests; allow human rights monitors to have access to cities like Deraa; and start a serious dialogue to advance a democratic transition. Otherwise, President Assad and his regime will continue to be challenged from within and isolated abroad.”
President Obama also conflated Syria’s abysmal human rights record with that of Iran.
“Thus far, Syria has followed its Iranian ally, seeking assistance from Tehran in the tactics of suppression. This speaks to the hypocrisy of the Iranian regime, which says it stand for the rights of protesters abroad, yet suppresses its people at home,” Mr. Obama said.
Earlier on Thursday, the Syrian government on condemned US sanction targeting President Assad for the brutal crackdown that has killed more than 850 people amid fresh military shelling that killed at least eight people on border town.
The violence came hours after the US slapped new sanctions on Mr. Assad that for the first time hold the Syrian leader personally accountable for attacks by his security forces.
The Syrian government denounced the US measure, calling it “one in a series of sanctions imposed by the US administration against the Syrian people as part of US regional policies serving Israel.”
The move “did not and will not affect Syria’s independent choices and steadfastness,” Syria's state-run news agency said.
The statement accused the US of a double standard, saying the US had no respect for human rights in its killing of civilians in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya. The US has troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and is part of the NATO coalition maintaining a no-fly zone over Libya and trying to protect Libyan citizens from government attacks.
The overnight attack on the border town of Talkalakh killed at least eight people, bringing the death toll to 34 since the military sealed off the border town Saturday and moved in tanks and troops, two human rights activists told The Associated Press. Syrians fleeing to Lebanon in recent days have described horrific scenes of execution-style slayings and bodies in the streets in Talkalakh.
President Barack Obama signed an executive order on Wednesday after weeks on indecision about what course of action to take against the 46-year-old Mr. Assad, whose military forces have killed more than 1,000 demonstrators.
“The actions the administration has taken today send an unequivocal message to President Assad, the Syrian leadership, and regime insiders that they will be held accountable for the ongoing violence and repression in Syria,” David S. Cohen, acting under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in a statement.
The sanctions freeze any assets that Mr. Assad and the others have in American financial institutions, and prohibit trade with them. Similar sanctions against Libya’s leader, Muammar Qaddafi, led to the seizure of more than $30 billion in assets, though it is believed that Mr. Assad has far fewer vulnerable assets, according to The New York Times.
In addition to the Syrian president, the sanctions affect the vice president, the prime minister, the interior and defense ministers, and the directors of military intelligence and political security.
The Times said that the sanctions come amid growing signs that the government feels emboldened after staggering in the face of an unprecedented challenge to 40 years of rule by the Assad family. The Times reports that Syrian officials have said they believe they have the upper hand and talk in weeks, not months, about putting an end to protests that erupted across the breadth of the country, from the southern steppe and Mediterranean coast to the outskirts of Damascus.
In an interview published Wednesday with a privately owned Syrian newspaper, aligned with the government, Mr. Assad declared that the tumult was coming to a close and acknowledged that his security forces had made mistakes in a crackdown so broad that hundreds of detainees were being held in schools and soccer fields.
Human rights activists have said at least 700 people were killed and 10,000 people arrested, as the military laid siege to at least four towns and cities.
“President Assad gave assurances that Syria had overcome the crisis it went through and that events were coming to an end,” the daily quoted him as saying.
The president also told the delegation that 4,000 police officers were undergoing what it called training to “prevent these excesses,” without giving further details, the Times reported.
The embattled Mr. Assad admitted mistakes against protesters while the US stated that it would place sanction against him, agencies reported on Wednesday.
The sanctions are part of “an effort to increase pressure on the government of Syria to end its violence against its people and begin transitioning to a democratic system,” an official told Agence-France Presse on the condition of anonymity.
The US also increased the gravity of its tone by urging Mr. Assad either to lead a political transition or step down from power as it imposed sanctions on him.
“It is up to Assad to lead a political transition or to leave,” according to US government talking points distributed by the State Department.
The US round of sanctions also involved Iran, as two Iranian Revolutionary Guard commanders had US sanctions imposed on them as part of a bid to end the violent crackdown on popular protests in Syria.
The US Treasury Department identified the two as Qasam Soleimani, commander of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force (IRGC-QF), and Mohsen Chizari, a senior IRGC-QF officer responsible for operations and training.
According to Reuters, targeting Mr. Assad personally with sanctions, which the United States and European Union have so far avoided, is a significant slap at Damascus and raises questions about whether Washington and the West may ultimately seek Mr. Assad’s removal from power.
The move, announced by the Treasury Department, freezes any assets of the Syrian officials that are in the United States or otherwise fall within US jurisdiction and it generally bars US individuals and companies from dealing with them.
In addition to Mr. Assad, the Treasury said the sanctions would target Vice President Farouq al-Shara, Prime Minister Adel Safar, Interior Minister Mohammad Ibrahim al-Shaar, Defense Minister Ali Habib as well as Abdul Fatah Qudsiya, the head of Syrian military intelligence, and Mohammed Dib Zaitoun, director of the political security directorate.
While it was not immediately clear what practical effect the sanctions would have or whether the seven had significant assets that would be captured by the US move, the symbolic gesture was profound.
“President al-Assad and his regime must immediately end the use of violence, answer the calls of the Syrian people for a more representative government, and embark upon the path of meaningful democratic reform,” Mr. Cohen of the US Treasury said.
European governments agreed on Tuesday to tighten sanctions against the Syrian leadership, but said they would decide next week about whether to include Assad on the list.
President Obama last month signed an executive order imposing a first round of US sanctions against Syria’s intelligence agency and two relatives of Mr. Assad’s for alleged human rights abuses.
The EU, for its part, put 13 Syrian officials on its sanctions list in what it described as a move to gradually increase pressure.
Meanwhile, Mr. Assad revealed his “soft” side when he told the private al-Watan daily on Wednesday that mistakes have been conducted against the protesters by the country’s security forces and that thousands of police officers are receiving new training, The Associated Press reported.
He also said that the unrest roiling the country is coming to an end.
His comments came as a human rights activist said Syrian troops have used heavy machine-guns to bomb a neighborhood in the central city of Homs.
Mustafa Osso, an activist, said the bombing of Bab Amr district took place early Wednesday.
Syria’s top rights organization has said that the crackdown by Assad has killed more than 850 people since the protests erupted in mid-March.
The latest place to see a harsh crackdown on dissent is the western town of Talkalakh. Activists say 27 people have been killed there since last week.
Despite a nationwide strike promised by the opposition on Tuesday, schools, shops and transport were operating normally in Damascus and other cities on Wednesday as opposition calls for a general strike appeared to go largely unheeded.
Life appeared normal in the capital and in the second largest city Aleppo as well as other towns where residents were contacted, but activists said demonstrations were planned in several regions later in the day.
“Who would dare go on strike and risk losing their business or be targeted by authorities?” said one businessman in Damascus who requested anonymity. “If anyone pulls down their store shutters they would immediately be spotted and risk losing their livelihood.”
Another merchant in the old part of town said the strike was of little use given that customers had all but dried up since the security forces began violently putting down pro-democracy protests that broke out two months ago.
One resident of the coastal town of Latakia, where anti-government protests have taken place, said the strike call there too had not been supported.
“The majority here aren't even aware of it,” he said. “And those who are know it's simply a means to pile pressure on authorities and nothing else.”
The Syrian Revolution 2011, an Internet-based opposition group, had called for the strike in the hope of putting pressure on the embattled Assad regime.
(Mustapha Ajbaili, an editor at Al Arabiya
“While Libya has faced violence on the greatest scale, it is not the only place where leaders have turned to repression to remain in power. Most recently, the Syrian regime has chosen the path of murder and the mass arrests of its citizens,” Mr. Obama said in a globally televised speech at the State Department in Washington. “The United States has condemned these actions, and working with the international community we have stepped up our sanctions on the Syrian regime – including sanctions announced yesterday on President Assad and those around him.”
Mr. Obama continued: “The Syrian people have shown their courage in demanding a transition to democracy. President Assad now has a choice: he can lead that transition, or get out of the way. The Syrian government must stop shooting demonstrators and allow peaceful protests; release political prisoners and stop unjust arrests; allow human rights monitors to have access to cities like Deraa; and start a serious dialogue to advance a democratic transition. Otherwise, President Assad and his regime will continue to be challenged from within and isolated abroad.”
President Obama also conflated Syria’s abysmal human rights record with that of Iran.
“Thus far, Syria has followed its Iranian ally, seeking assistance from Tehran in the tactics of suppression. This speaks to the hypocrisy of the Iranian regime, which says it stand for the rights of protesters abroad, yet suppresses its people at home,” Mr. Obama said.
Earlier on Thursday, the Syrian government on condemned US sanction targeting President Assad for the brutal crackdown that has killed more than 850 people amid fresh military shelling that killed at least eight people on border town.
The violence came hours after the US slapped new sanctions on Mr. Assad that for the first time hold the Syrian leader personally accountable for attacks by his security forces.
The Syrian government denounced the US measure, calling it “one in a series of sanctions imposed by the US administration against the Syrian people as part of US regional policies serving Israel.”
The move “did not and will not affect Syria’s independent choices and steadfastness,” Syria's state-run news agency said.
The statement accused the US of a double standard, saying the US had no respect for human rights in its killing of civilians in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya. The US has troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and is part of the NATO coalition maintaining a no-fly zone over Libya and trying to protect Libyan citizens from government attacks.
The overnight attack on the border town of Talkalakh killed at least eight people, bringing the death toll to 34 since the military sealed off the border town Saturday and moved in tanks and troops, two human rights activists told The Associated Press. Syrians fleeing to Lebanon in recent days have described horrific scenes of execution-style slayings and bodies in the streets in Talkalakh.
President Barack Obama signed an executive order on Wednesday after weeks on indecision about what course of action to take against the 46-year-old Mr. Assad, whose military forces have killed more than 1,000 demonstrators.
“The actions the administration has taken today send an unequivocal message to President Assad, the Syrian leadership, and regime insiders that they will be held accountable for the ongoing violence and repression in Syria,” David S. Cohen, acting under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in a statement.
The sanctions freeze any assets that Mr. Assad and the others have in American financial institutions, and prohibit trade with them. Similar sanctions against Libya’s leader, Muammar Qaddafi, led to the seizure of more than $30 billion in assets, though it is believed that Mr. Assad has far fewer vulnerable assets, according to The New York Times.
In addition to the Syrian president, the sanctions affect the vice president, the prime minister, the interior and defense ministers, and the directors of military intelligence and political security.
The Times said that the sanctions come amid growing signs that the government feels emboldened after staggering in the face of an unprecedented challenge to 40 years of rule by the Assad family. The Times reports that Syrian officials have said they believe they have the upper hand and talk in weeks, not months, about putting an end to protests that erupted across the breadth of the country, from the southern steppe and Mediterranean coast to the outskirts of Damascus.
In an interview published Wednesday with a privately owned Syrian newspaper, aligned with the government, Mr. Assad declared that the tumult was coming to a close and acknowledged that his security forces had made mistakes in a crackdown so broad that hundreds of detainees were being held in schools and soccer fields.
Human rights activists have said at least 700 people were killed and 10,000 people arrested, as the military laid siege to at least four towns and cities.
“President Assad gave assurances that Syria had overcome the crisis it went through and that events were coming to an end,” the daily quoted him as saying.
The president also told the delegation that 4,000 police officers were undergoing what it called training to “prevent these excesses,” without giving further details, the Times reported.
The embattled Mr. Assad admitted mistakes against protesters while the US stated that it would place sanction against him, agencies reported on Wednesday.
The sanctions are part of “an effort to increase pressure on the government of Syria to end its violence against its people and begin transitioning to a democratic system,” an official told Agence-France Presse on the condition of anonymity.
The US also increased the gravity of its tone by urging Mr. Assad either to lead a political transition or step down from power as it imposed sanctions on him.
“It is up to Assad to lead a political transition or to leave,” according to US government talking points distributed by the State Department.
The US round of sanctions also involved Iran, as two Iranian Revolutionary Guard commanders had US sanctions imposed on them as part of a bid to end the violent crackdown on popular protests in Syria.
The US Treasury Department identified the two as Qasam Soleimani, commander of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force (IRGC-QF), and Mohsen Chizari, a senior IRGC-QF officer responsible for operations and training.
According to Reuters, targeting Mr. Assad personally with sanctions, which the United States and European Union have so far avoided, is a significant slap at Damascus and raises questions about whether Washington and the West may ultimately seek Mr. Assad’s removal from power.
The move, announced by the Treasury Department, freezes any assets of the Syrian officials that are in the United States or otherwise fall within US jurisdiction and it generally bars US individuals and companies from dealing with them.
In addition to Mr. Assad, the Treasury said the sanctions would target Vice President Farouq al-Shara, Prime Minister Adel Safar, Interior Minister Mohammad Ibrahim al-Shaar, Defense Minister Ali Habib as well as Abdul Fatah Qudsiya, the head of Syrian military intelligence, and Mohammed Dib Zaitoun, director of the political security directorate.
While it was not immediately clear what practical effect the sanctions would have or whether the seven had significant assets that would be captured by the US move, the symbolic gesture was profound.
“President al-Assad and his regime must immediately end the use of violence, answer the calls of the Syrian people for a more representative government, and embark upon the path of meaningful democratic reform,” Mr. Cohen of the US Treasury said.
European governments agreed on Tuesday to tighten sanctions against the Syrian leadership, but said they would decide next week about whether to include Assad on the list.
President Obama last month signed an executive order imposing a first round of US sanctions against Syria’s intelligence agency and two relatives of Mr. Assad’s for alleged human rights abuses.
The EU, for its part, put 13 Syrian officials on its sanctions list in what it described as a move to gradually increase pressure.
Meanwhile, Mr. Assad revealed his “soft” side when he told the private al-Watan daily on Wednesday that mistakes have been conducted against the protesters by the country’s security forces and that thousands of police officers are receiving new training, The Associated Press reported.
He also said that the unrest roiling the country is coming to an end.
His comments came as a human rights activist said Syrian troops have used heavy machine-guns to bomb a neighborhood in the central city of Homs.
Mustafa Osso, an activist, said the bombing of Bab Amr district took place early Wednesday.
Syria’s top rights organization has said that the crackdown by Assad has killed more than 850 people since the protests erupted in mid-March.
The latest place to see a harsh crackdown on dissent is the western town of Talkalakh. Activists say 27 people have been killed there since last week.
Despite a nationwide strike promised by the opposition on Tuesday, schools, shops and transport were operating normally in Damascus and other cities on Wednesday as opposition calls for a general strike appeared to go largely unheeded.
Life appeared normal in the capital and in the second largest city Aleppo as well as other towns where residents were contacted, but activists said demonstrations were planned in several regions later in the day.
“Who would dare go on strike and risk losing their business or be targeted by authorities?” said one businessman in Damascus who requested anonymity. “If anyone pulls down their store shutters they would immediately be spotted and risk losing their livelihood.”
Another merchant in the old part of town said the strike was of little use given that customers had all but dried up since the security forces began violently putting down pro-democracy protests that broke out two months ago.
One resident of the coastal town of Latakia, where anti-government protests have taken place, said the strike call there too had not been supported.
“The majority here aren't even aware of it,” he said. “And those who are know it's simply a means to pile pressure on authorities and nothing else.”
The Syrian Revolution 2011, an Internet-based opposition group, had called for the strike in the hope of putting pressure on the embattled Assad regime.
(Mustapha Ajbaili, an editor at Al Arabiya
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