Pressure intensifies on Syrian leader

INTERNATIONAL PRESSURE has been dramatically ratcheted up on the Syrian regime, due to its failure to end military action against citizens seeking its overthrow.

US president Barack Obama yesterday kicked off a co-ordinated campaign by calling on his Syrian counterpart to stand down, as human rights activists said troops continued offensive operations across the country.

Troops remained in control of the northern port city of Latakia, targeted by a week-long operation, and detention centres were crowded with suspected dissidents, although on Wednesday President Bashar al-Assad declared he had ordered a halt to the crackdown during a phone call with UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon.

Activists also reported that dozens of people had been killed in Latakia and the eastern oil hub of Deir al-Zor since the latest round of military operations began.

Mr Obama said: “The future of Syria must be determined by its people but President al-Assad is standing in their way . . . For the sake of the Syrian people, the time has come for President al-Assad to step aside.”

The US leader said the Syrian government had responded to “peaceful marches” with a sustained onslaught that activists contend has cost more than 1,700 civilian lives.

“I strongly condemn this brutality, including the disgraceful attacks on Syrian civilians in cities like Hama and Deir al-Zor, and the arrests of opposition figures who have been denied justice and subjected to torture at the hands of the regime,” Mr Obama said.

Secretary of state Hillary Clinton said that the US was instituting sanctions targeting the energy sector by “banning American imports of Syrian petroleum and petroleum products and prohibiting Americans from dealing in these products”. Since the US is not a customer for Syrian oil and gas, the intention appears to be to press EU members Italy, France, the Netherlands and Germany, Syria’s main clients, to impose a boycott.

In step with Washington, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton urged Dr Assad to “step aside” and Britain, France and Germany also called on him to leave power.