Obama asks Assad to ‘step aside’ after Syria killings

WASHINGTON (AFP) – President Barack Obama on Saturday accused the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad of murdering civilians in an “unspeakable assault” in the city of Homs, and demanded that Assad step down.

“Assad must halt his campaign of killing and crimes against his own people now. He must step aside and allow a democratic transition to proceed immediately,” Obama said in a statement.

A protestor holds a sign during a demonstration against the Bashar al-Assad regime's crackdown on pro-democracy protests, outside the Syrian embassy in central London, on February 4, 2012. The previous night, protestors broke into the embassy after reports came in that the Syrian Government had continued their heavy crackdown on demonstraions in the country, killing at least 200 civilians in the city of Homs. AFP PHOTO

As US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov that Washington will push for a UN Security Council vote on Syria later Saturday, a US official said.

However, it was not clear what if any progress Clinton had made in bridging differences with Foreign Minister Lavrov over the terms of an amended Arab- and Western-backed draft resolution in New York.

Lavrov had earlier warned of a “scandal” if the text went to a vote. His deputy said Lavrov would travel to Damascus on Tuesday for talks with President Bashar al-Assad in order to find a “political solution” to the crisis.

“Obviously, we’re still working on it,” the senior US State Department official said when it was suggested not all the differences had been bridged.

“The secretary made clear that we feel, the United States feel, strongly that the UN Security Council should vote today,” the official said.

“Foreign Minister Lavrov did not dispute the urgency of the situation and the action now moves to New York,” according to the official.

“I’m not going to predict what’s going to happen in New York,” the official said when asked whether the United States would force a Russian veto of the draft.

“I’m not going to characterise how far we’ve gotten or not gotten,” the official added when asked if progress had been made in bridging the gap between Russia and the sponsors of the resolution.

Asked if the United States was still hopeful that Russia would vote “yes,” she replied: “We are.”

Two-thirds of the 45-minute meeting between Clinton and Lavrov on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, the official said, were dominated by the deliberations in New York.

The pair had “a very vigorous discussion” during a meeting that lasted 15 minutes longer than planned, the official added.

Before heading to Munich from Moscow, Lavrov said the draft does “not suit us at all” and warned of a “scandal” if the text was brought to a vote.

Later, responding to questions in Munich, Lavrov appeared to tone down his remarks, but insisted on Russia’s right to veto.

“We are not saying that this resolution is hopeless,” he said before he met Clinton here.

“We circulated amendments to this resolution which are intended to fix these two basic problems,” he said.

He said Moscow had objections to what he termed: “The imposition of the terms and conditions of the dialogue, which must be started without prejudging the results.”

He also said that “measures must be taken to influence not only the government … but also the armed groups, because unless you do it both ways, you are taking sides in a civil war.”