Assad must do more on reform: US

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad
© AFP/File Sergei Supinsky

AFP 

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad must "do more, or allow others to do more" if he is going to satisfy the reform demands of the Syrian people, a US State Department spokesman said Thursday.

State Department spokesman Mark Toner was responding to questions about comments from former Syrian vice president Abdel Halim Khaddam, who told an Egyptian newspaper that Assad's crackdown on demonstrators will eventually lead to the Syrian leader's ouster.

"I cannot even begin to guess about Assad's future," said Toner. "He's certainly facing a serious challenge... from the Syrian people," he said. "They have expressed their aspirations that they want to see change, and so far it appears that he's not met those aspirations."
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday condemned the violence in Syria and said the country must begin a "serious political process."

On Thursday, Assad signed a decree to lift almost five decades of draconian emergency rule, on the eve of more of the protests which have rocked his regime.

© AFP -- Published at Activist Post with license

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