Press Statement
Victoria Nuland, Department Spokesperson
Washington, DC
January 6, 2013

Bashar al-Asad’s speech today is yet another attempt by the regime to cling to power and does nothing to advance the Syrian people’s goal of a political transition. His initiative is detached from reality, undermines the efforts of Joint Special Representative Lakhdar Brahimi, and would only allow the regime to further perpetuate its bloody oppression of the Syrian people.

For nearly two years, the Asad regime has brutalized its own people. Even today, as Asad speaks of dialogue, the regime is deliberately stoking sectarian tensions and continuing to kill its own people by attacking Sunni towns and villages in the mixed areas of Jabal Akrad and Jabal Turkmen in Lattakia province.

Asad has lost all legitimacy and must step aside to enable a political solution and a democratic transition that meets the aspirations of the Syrian people. The United States continues to support the Geneva Action Group’s framework for a political solution, which was endorsed by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, the Arab League, and the UN General Assembly. We will continue our efforts in support of Joint Special Representative Brahimi to build international unity behind it and to urge all parties in Syria to take meaningful steps toward its implementation.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton hosts the Ad Hoc Friends of the Syrian People Ministerial, at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City, September 28, 2012. You can read the Secretary’s remarks at the meeting here. [State Department photo/ Public Domain]

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton signs a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Arab League Secretary General Nabil Elaraby at the United Nations in New York, New York on September 26, 2012. A text transcript can be found at http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2012/09/198246.htm.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton signs a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Arab League Secretary General Nabil Elaraby at the United Nations in New York, New York on September 26, 2012. A text transcript can be found at http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2012/09/198246.htm.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton delivers remarks before the United Nations Security Council session on the situation in Syria, at the United Nations in New York, NY, January 31, 2012.

Press Statement

Hillary Rodham Clinton Secretary of State

Washington, DC January 30, 2012

The United States condemns in the strongest possible terms the escalation of the Syrian regime’s violent and brutal attacks on its own people. In the past few days we have seen intensified Syrian security operations all around the country which have killed hundreds of civilians. The government has shelled civilian areas with mortars and tank fire and brought down whole buildings on top of their occupants. The violence has escalated to the point that the Arab League has had to suspend its monitoring mission. The regime has failed to meet its commitments to the Arab League to halt its acts of violence, withdraw its military forces from residential areas, allow journalists and monitors to operate freely and release prisoners arrested because of the current unrest.

The Security Council must act and make clear to the Syrian regime that the world community views its actions as a threat to peace and security. The violence must end, so that a new period of democratic transition can begin.

Tomorrow, I will attend a United Nations Security Council meeting on Syria where the international community should send a clear message of support to the Syrian people: we stand with you. The Arab League is backing a resolution that calls on the international community to support its ongoing efforts, because the status quo is unsustainable. The longer the Assad regime continues its attacks on the Syrian people and stands in the way of a peaceful transition, the greater the concern that instability will escalate and spill over throughout the region.