WASHINGTON, U.S.A. - President Barack Obama called directly Thursday for Syrian President Bashar Al Assad to resign, saying the brutal crackdown on anti-government protesters makes the heir to a long Middle East family dictatorship unfit to lead.
It was the administration's first explicit demand for Al Assad to step down and was accompanied by an executive order freezing all Syrian government assets in the US and targeting the country's lucrative energy sector.
- The move was coordinated with the United Nations and with US allies in Europe and the Middle East and followed an intense diplomatic campaign to increase pressure on Al Assad. The European Union issued an identical call shortly after Obama's statement, followed quickly by similar words from the leaders of France, Britain, Germany and Canada.
And just before Obama made his demand, UN rights investigators said Syria's crackdown "may amount to crimes against humanity" and should be referred to the International Criminal Court.- In a written statement released by the White House, Obama said Al Assad had failed to follow through on promises to reform and instead escalated a brutal crackdown on pro-reform activists that rights groups say has killed nearly 2,000 people since an uprising against his regime began five months ago.
However, in response to U.S. President Barack Obama's call for the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, journalist and political commentator Hesham Tillawi says the U.S. seeks to bring Syria under its domain.
Yemen and Bahrain are different from Syria in that they are "under the United States' domain," Tillawi said in an interview with Press TV's U.S. Desk on Thursday.
"In Syria, US want the removal of Bashar al-Assad, so Syria can come under the United States and Western Zionist domain and that's exactly why they're asking for the removal of Bashar," he added.- President Obama, for the first time, called for the Syrian president to step down from power on Thursday as he announced a new executive order imposing harsher sanctions on the country.
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