US position unchanged: Assad must go

Pro-democracy protesters demonstrate against President
Bashar al-Assad’s regime outside the Arab league headquarters
© AFP Mohammed Hossam

AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The White House said Wednesday, after the Arab League revealed Syria had agreed to a plan to end political violence, that it had not changed its position that President Bashar al-Assad should go.

White House spokesman Jay Carney did not comment on the details of the Arab League plan or on whether Washington had been informed of the Syrian response.

But he said “our position remains that President Assad has lost his legitimacy to rule and should step down.”

“We support all international efforts that are aimed towards convincing the regime to stop attacking its own people and perpetrating violence against its own people. But our position on Assad has not changed.”

An Arab League official earlier said Syria fully accepted the plan to end nearly eight months of bloodshed, although United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon said it was vital that Assad’s regime swiftly implement it in full.

The agreement, announced at a meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Cairo, came amid huge pressure on Assad’s regime, even from allies such as China, to end weeks of prevarication and sign up to the deal drawn up by the pan-Arab bloc.

The peace plan agreed to by Syria, a copy of which was obtained by AFP, provides for a “complete halt to the violence to protect civilians.”

More than 3,000 people have died in the government’s bloody crackdown on the unprecedented protests against Assad’s rule which broke out in mid-March, according to UN figures.

The blueprint also calls for the “release of people detained as a result of the recent events, the withdrawal of forces from towns and districts where there have been armed clashes, and the granting of access to the Arab League, and Arab and international media.”