WASHINGTON (EJP)—The United States imposed new sanctions on Syria Wednesday as it was expected to issue an explicit call for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down.
Syria’s ambassador to the United Nations has sparked a diplomatic furore by comparing the deadly unrest in his country to the riots in Britain.
The Treasury Department added Syria’s largest commercial bank and mobile phone operator to a blacklist of companies slapped with asset freezes and barred from doing business in the United States.
The White House reiterated President Barack Obama’s view that Assad has „lost legitimacy” and Syria „will be a better place” without him, but again stopped short of specifically calling on him to leave power.
„Through his own actions, President Assad is ensuring that he and his regime will be left in the past,” White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters.
But when asked whether Obama this week would directly urge Assad to leave power, Carney said: „Any future announcements or things that the president might say I’ll leave to that time.”
Susan Rice, US ambassador to the United Nations, said the US was looking to intensify international pressure on Syria. „The behavior of Assad is absolutely unacceptable; he has lost any legitimacy to lead,” she said.
Human rights activists estimate Assad’s repression on anti-government demonstrations over the past five months has left more than 1,600 people dead.
The UN Security Council has met to discuss the Syrian crisis.
