[url=http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/19/world/middleeast/19diplo.html?_r=1]New York Times[/url]
[release]
[img]http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2011/08/19/world/19diplo-cnd01-clinton/19diplo-cnd01-clinton-popup.jpg[/img]
WASHINGTON — In a campaign coordinated with European leaders, President Obama made the United States government’s first explicit call on Thursday for the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, to leave office.
“For the sake of the Syrian people, the time has come for President Assad to step aside,” Mr. Obama said in a statement that also announced powerful new sanctions: freezing all Syrian assets within American jurisdiction and barring American citizens from any business dealings with the government in Damascus.
A joint statement from Germany, France, and Britain said Mr. Assad has lost legitimacy as a leader and must step down, as did a statement by the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton.
The rapid-fire burst of announcements signaled what may be an end to days of intense negotiations involving Syrian, Turkish, American and other officials. The foreign minister of Turkey, which has had close relations with Syria and has slowly escalated its efforts to stop the bloodshed, spent six hours last week with Mr. Assad, appealing to him to end the crackdown, one of the bloodiest in the Arab uprising. But Mr. Assad rebuffed that appeal, saying that he would continue his fight against protesters he has dismissed as militant Islamists and terrorists.
Adding to the sudden increase of pressure on Mr. Assad, a United Nations human rights panel recommended that Syria be referred to the International Criminal Court for prosecution. The panel said that government forces may have committed crimes against humanity by carrying out summary executions, including “353 named victims”; torturing prisoners and harming children; and impersonating civilians “to cause unrest and portray an inaccurate picture of events.” The Security Council was expected to discuss the recommendation later in the day.
The strong new international actions came a day after a phone call in which Mr. Assad assured the United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, that the crackdown had ended after Mr. Ban voiced outrage over the continued use of violence by Syrian security forces against unarmed civilians.
“The secretary general emphasized that all military operations and mass arrests must cease immediately,” a statement published by Mr. Ban’s office said. “President Assad said that the military and police operations had stopped.”
According to accounts from activists within Syria, that was not the case. They said the violence continued overnight Wednesday into Thursday morning, with two people reported killed in the restive city of Homs after a night prayer, held only during the month of Ramadan, when Muslims fast from dawn to sunset.
“Nothing has changed yet,” a resident in Homs who did not want to be identified by name said by telephone. “Last night was very violent; they shot at protesters and carried out raids just like any other previous day.”
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton followed Mr. Obama’s announcement with a news conference detailing the tightening of the sanctions, which bar Americans from dealing in Syrian oil and other petroleum products. Mr. Obama said in his statement that the order “prohibits U.S. persons from having any dealings” with Syria or “operating or investing in Syria.” The term “persons” includes corporations.
In their joint statement, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France and Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain said that Mr. Assad had “lost all legitimacy and can no longer claim to lead the country.” They called on him to “step aside in the best interests of Syria and the unity of its people.”
The statement from the European Union’s foreign-policy chief, Catherine Ashton, noted “the complete loss of Bashar al-Assad’s legitimacy in the eyes of the Syrian people and the necessity for him to step aside.”
“The president’s promises of reform have lost all credibility as reforms cannot succeed under permanent repression,” Ms. Ashton said.
Among the attacks that activists reported overnight was a grenade strike that killed a woman when it hit her house in the Homs neighborhood of Bab Amr, which has witnessed daily protests against the rule of Mr. Assad since the popular uprising started five months ago, according to an e-mailed statement by the Local Coordination Committees, a group of activists who organize and document protests around Syria.
The activists also said that armed troops had carried out raids and had arrested hundreds of people in several areas, including Hama, the scene of a brutal crackdown more than two weeks ago that left at least 200 people dead, as well as Latakia on the Mediterranean coast, and the capital, Damascus.
Residents also said that military troops and armed men known as shabeeha had not withdrawn from either Hama or Deir al-Zour, a city in the east.
The American announcement had been rumored for more than a week, as American officials worked behind the scenes with allies. “It’s not going to be any news if the United States says Assad needs to go,” Mrs. Clinton said Tuesday, during an appearance at the National Defense University in Washington. “O.K. Fine. What’s next? If Turkey says it, if King Abdullah says it, if other people say it, there is no way the Assad regime can ignore it.”
Turkey’s government had wanted to hold off for a week or two on demanding Mr. Assad’s departure, but President Obama wanted to go ahead, and pressed the point in phone conversations with the leaders of Turkey, France, Germany and Britain, according to an administration official who described the high-level consultations.
The United Nations has said that at least 2,000 people have been killed since the uprising started in mid-March, and that thousands were missing or detained. But the Syrian authorities dispute these figures and say that the unrest is a foreign conspiracy.
In its 22-page report, covering the period between March 15 and July 15, 2011, the United Nations panel registered particular concern at kidnappings and torture of detainees.
The report said that there had been “violent incidents caused by a minority of civilians in some demonstrations,” but “the disproportionate use of force by Syrian military and security forces violates Syria’s international human rights obligations.”
“Many civilians, including children, have disappeared,” the report said. “Some bodies were returned to their respective families, many of which bore the traces of torture. The fate and whereabouts of hundreds of detainees remain unknown.”
The United Nations investigators said they had not been allowed access to Syria but had interviewed 180 witnesses among thousands of Syrian nationals who had fled the country and examined “over 50 videos and numerous photographic images related to apparent human-rights violations, which were obtained from both private sources and the media.”
The report said Syria had violated the “right to liberty” through “the widespread commission of arbitrary, unlawful arrests and subsequent unlawful detention aimed in large part at intimidating protesters including women, children and the elderly.”
“Children have not only been targeted by security forces,” the report added, “but they have been repeatedly subject to the same human rights and criminal violations as adults, including torture.”[/release]
Clinton looks like a wax doll
I think this is good, but I don't think we should further involve ourselves. We can't afford another war, especially after our intervention in Libya.
We just don't have the money to continue being the world police.
[IMG]http://i.somethingawful.com/forumsystem/emoticons/emot-foxnews.gif[/IMG][I][B]OBAMA CALLS FOR THE PRESIDENT OF CLOSE U.S. ALLY TO QUIT AFTER KILLING TERRORISTS IN HIS COUNTRY. IS OBAMA A TERRORIST SYMPATHIZER?!? MORE AT 11.[/B][/I][IMG]http://i.somethingawful.com/forumsystem/emoticons/emot-foxnews.gif[/IMG]
[QUOTE=Shiftyze;31807493]Clinton looks like a wax doll[/QUOTE]
You mean that wax doll looks like Clinton.
[QUOTE=Madman_Andre;31808297][IMG]http://i.somethingawful.com/forumsystem/emoticons/emot-foxnews.gif[/IMG][I][B]OBAMA CALLS FOR THE PRESIDENT OF CLOSE U.S. ALLY TO QUIT AFTER KILLING TERRORISTS IN HIS COUNTRY. IS OBAMA A TERRORIST SYMPATHIZER?!? MORE AT 11.[/B][/I][IMG]http://i.somethingawful.com/forumsystem/emoticons/emot-foxnews.gif[/IMG][/QUOTE]
Even Fox can't screw up a headline that much. Christ. It's getting old guys.
[QUOTE=Madman_Andre;31808297][IMG]http://i.somethingawful.com/forumsystem/emoticons/emot-foxnews.gif[/IMG][I][B]OBAMA CALLS FOR THE PRESIDENT OF CLOSE U.S. ALLY TO QUIT AFTER KILLING TERRORISTS IN HIS COUNTRY. IS OBAMA A TERRORIST SYMPATHIZER?!? MORE AT 11.[/B][/I][IMG]http://i.somethingawful.com/forumsystem/emoticons/emot-foxnews.gif[/IMG][/QUOTE]
please no more
The only people economic sanctions TRULY hurt are the people, not the government.
Hey, Clinton doesn't look as bad as usual.
[QUOTE=Eudoxia;31810126]Hey, Clinton doesn't look as bad as usual.[/QUOTE]
Really? I think she looks worse. I don't like her hair, it doesn't match her.
I'm happy with this as long as we do not invade any more countries. These people deserve a better government and leader, but the US can not afford to intervene even more.
I open this thread to be assaulted by Hillary Clinton's abominable face. I am now leaving it.
[QUOTE=meatballfish;31809811]Even Fox can't screw up a headline that much. Christ. It's getting old guys.[/QUOTE]
Fox News has reached the point that they would outright support a psychotic and sociopathic dictator like Assad if Obama criticizes him.
Hm not really going to make a difference.
Come on guys, enough with the puns, this is syria.
I'm surprised. The most expectable thing would have been to start another fucking war again like every time before.
[QUOTE=Falchion;31824012]I'm surprised. The most expectable thing would have been to start another fucking war again like every time before.[/QUOTE]
I guess Obama's running thing's differently.
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