Experts: Washington Wants Assad Out of Power but Doesn’t Know How to Go About It

A senior official at the Department of State has repeated Washington’s demands for the Syrian regime to renounce violence against protesters in the wake of the rising numbers of dead and injured’s totaling almost 2,000 martyrs and thousands of detained and wounded. The official said, “We denounce the brutal repression of the opposition and condemn the killing of civilians in Homs. The regime must carry out political reforms or step down from power.”* The American official refused to indicate the next step the United States would take in the Syrian issue, saying, “We are observing the situation up close.”

During her visit to Istanbul on Saturday, Secretary of State Hilary Clinton called on Syria to allow opposition groups to operate in the country and for the Syrian authorities to cooperate with the opposition as part of the political reform process.

After Clinton announced that Assad had, in the United States’ point of view, lost his legitimacy, President Obama repeated his secretary of state’s speech in an interview with the CBS network, “Increasingly you’re seeing President Assad lose legitimacy in the eyes of his people.”

Some observers have criticized the U.N.’s stance after four months of clashes between the Syrian securities organizations and protesters, especially since the official American position stopped at condemning and criticizing without pushing the U.N. to take a firmer stance against Syria or publicly calling on the nations that are blocking a resolution condemning Syria to take a stronger stance, especially against Iran’s supplying of weapons to the Syrian regime. Observers expressed apprehension after Ayatollah Khamenei authorized a $5.8 billion payment to Syria in the form of aid, along with 290,000 barrels of oil per day at no charge for the coming nine months, according to the French newspaper L’Echo.

Pieter Wezeman, a researcher at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute indicated that “the United States must push the U.N. Security Council to issue a resolution condemning the Syrian regime, and put Moscow and Beijing in a position of responsibility in front of world public opinion if the two states veto the resolution.”** He added that consensus must be reached in the European Union and the United Nations in calling on Moscow to take a stance against the Syrian regime. He suggested that Assad’s stay in power would be a further embarrassment to the United States, which announced Assad’s loss of legitimacy. Andrew Tabler of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy said, “There is agreement within the American administration that the Assad regime must go, but there is division and confusion in the Administration concerning how to go about it. Strong Syrian relations and Syrian support for Hamas, factions of Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah place massive pressure on policymakers fearful that Syria may use agents in the region to attack Israel.”**

Tabler added, “There are serious discussions in Washington about imposing sanctions on oil and gas consumers and on foreign energy companies working in Syria, such as Dutch Shell and French Total, which will deprive the Syrian regime of $8 million per day which is being used to finance arms for the security organizations to suppress protests.”

White House spokesman Jay Carney said, “The United States is using every diplomatic, economic and strategic tool at our disposal to support the democratic transition and stop the killing, although the results so far are not brilliant.”**

* Translator’s Note: The official quoted here is not named and, although the quote is translated accurately, it is not possible to verify the original quote.

**Translator’s Note: This speech is translated accurately but the original English cannot be found.