AJC Welcomes President Obama's Call for Assad "To Step Aside"

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Aug 18, 2011, 01:40 ET

NEW YORK, Aug. 18, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- AJC welcomed President Obama's call today for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad "to step aside" so the Syrian people can determine their future.

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"It is indeed high time that the United States explicitly called for the Syrian tyrant Assad to leave," said AJC Executive Director David Harris. "Looking forward, clear and sustained leadership on the Syrian crisis will be imperative to mobilizing further international pressure on the despotic Assad regime, which has waged a brutal war against its own people."

During the past five months, an estimated 2,000 have been killed, and 30,000 detained, by Syrian security forces in cities across the country.

In his statement today, President Obama said: "The future of Syria must be determined by its people, but President Bashar al-Assad is standing in their way. His calls for dialogue and reform have rung hollow while he is imprisoning, torturing, and slaughtering his own people…For the sake of the Syrian people, the time has come for President Assad to step aside."

Following Obama's statement, the EU also called on Assad "to step aside," an action that AJC also applauded. "We trust that other governments will make a similar call," said Harris.

The UN Security Council is scheduled to meet later today on Syria. "The UN Security Council should adopt the strongest possible resolution explicitly calling for an end to the Assad regime," said Harris. "All concerned about Syria's fate will look particularly at the position of those member countries that have so far prevented an appropriate UN Security Council resolution from being adopted."

President Obama's statement comes after a series of U.S. and EU sanctions were imposed targeting Syrian officials and businesses. Additional sanctions announced today by the White House will prohibit Americans from engaging in any transaction involving the Syrian government. They also prohibit U.S. entities, wherever located, from engaging in any transactions or dealings with businesses involved with Syrian petroleum products. The administration also blacklisted a new round of Syrian companies, including the state-owned General Petroleum Corporation that controls the country's oil and gas industry.

SOURCE American Jewish Committee