Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Obama says Syria's Assad 'will fall', but US will not take unilateral action
Young women with their face painted with the Syrian flag attend a demonstration against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
President Barack Obama said today it was only a matter of time before Syria's President Bashar al-Assad left office, but added it was a mistake to think the US could take unilateral action there.
"Ultimately this dictator will fall," Obama said at a news conference, adding that it was not a question of if but when Assad would be forced out.
But he squarely opposed a call by US Senator John McCain who yesterday urged US air strikes on Assad's forces.
McCain, an influential Republican who lost to Obama in the 2008 presidential election, said the United States should lead an international effort to protect Syrian cities and towns.
Obama said it was a mistake to think there was a simple solution to the now year-long crackdown on the opposition in Syria, or that the United States could act unilaterally.
Obama's comments came as Assad faced growing Western anger for preventing aid from entering a devastated district of Homs and over accusations of human rights abuses, including pictures said to show torture victims at a hospital in the city.
Dozens of men, women and children returned on foot to Baba Amr, state television said, passing bullet-pocked and damaged buildings, days after rebel fighters pulled out after a sustained and heavy military assault.
The Red Cross was awaiting approval to distribute aid to the devastated district which endured a month of siege.
Residents who fled the district spoke of bodies decomposing under rubble, sewage mixing with litter in the streets, and a campaign of arrests and executions.
"The smell of death was everywhere. We could smell the bodies buried under the rubble all the time," said Ahmad, who escaped to Lebanon. "We saw so much death that at the end the sight of a dismembered body ... stopped moving us."
Despite their chorus of outrage as Homs residents gave more detailed accounts of the siege of Baba Amr, Western leaders have ruled out a Libya-style military intervention in Syria, fearing it could trigger wider conflict in the Middle East.
The White House said earlier that Obama was committed to diplomatic efforts to end the violence, saying Washington sought to isolate Assad, cut off his sources of revenue and encourage unity among his opponents.
But calls for action to protect civilians have grown louder as the Alawite-led security apparatus cracked down on protests and an uprising that has its roots in the majority Sunni
community and which has raised the prospect of a civil war.
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, a former ally of Assad's, said the violence in Syria had "started to resemble an inhumane savagery in recent days," calling for a humanitarian corridor to be established in Syria to help civilians.
"Ultimately this dictator will fall," Obama said at a news conference, adding that it was not a question of if but when Assad would be forced out.
But he squarely opposed a call by US Senator John McCain who yesterday urged US air strikes on Assad's forces.
McCain, an influential Republican who lost to Obama in the 2008 presidential election, said the United States should lead an international effort to protect Syrian cities and towns.
Obama said it was a mistake to think there was a simple solution to the now year-long crackdown on the opposition in Syria, or that the United States could act unilaterally.
Obama's comments came as Assad faced growing Western anger for preventing aid from entering a devastated district of Homs and over accusations of human rights abuses, including pictures said to show torture victims at a hospital in the city.
Dozens of men, women and children returned on foot to Baba Amr, state television said, passing bullet-pocked and damaged buildings, days after rebel fighters pulled out after a sustained and heavy military assault.
The Red Cross was awaiting approval to distribute aid to the devastated district which endured a month of siege.
Residents who fled the district spoke of bodies decomposing under rubble, sewage mixing with litter in the streets, and a campaign of arrests and executions.
"The smell of death was everywhere. We could smell the bodies buried under the rubble all the time," said Ahmad, who escaped to Lebanon. "We saw so much death that at the end the sight of a dismembered body ... stopped moving us."
Despite their chorus of outrage as Homs residents gave more detailed accounts of the siege of Baba Amr, Western leaders have ruled out a Libya-style military intervention in Syria, fearing it could trigger wider conflict in the Middle East.
The White House said earlier that Obama was committed to diplomatic efforts to end the violence, saying Washington sought to isolate Assad, cut off his sources of revenue and encourage unity among his opponents.
But calls for action to protect civilians have grown louder as the Alawite-led security apparatus cracked down on protests and an uprising that has its roots in the majority Sunni
community and which has raised the prospect of a civil war.
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, a former ally of Assad's, said the violence in Syria had "started to resemble an inhumane savagery in recent days," calling for a humanitarian corridor to be established in Syria to help civilians.
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