LOC10:02
07:02 GMT
WASHINGTON, July 26 (KUNA) -- The defections of Syrian ambassadors to both
the United Arab Emirates and Cyprus are another indication that senior
officials around the Assad inner circle are fleeing the government because of
the heinous actions taken by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad against his own
people, "and the recognition that Assad's days are numbered," White House
press secretary Jay Carney said on Wednesday.
Remarking on the continuing assault in Aleppo, Syria's largest city, Carney
said, "The Assad government is reportedly using not just helicopters, but
fixed-wing aircraft as well as tanks to perpetrate heinous violence against
the Syrian people and unarmed civilians. We condemn that."
It is another indication of the "depths of depravity" that Assad has
demonstrated himself capable of achieving, Carney said during a briefing
aboard Air Force One as President Barack Obama flew from a campaign event in
Seattle to one in New Orleans.
The United States and its partners will continue to take steps to isolate
the Assad regime, "to starve it of financial resources through sanctions,
which makes it increasingly difficult for Assad to finance his brutal
crackdown on his own people," Carney said.
"We continue to support the opposition's efforts to consolidate itself and
to take steps to implement their broad agreement in Cairo over what a
political transition would look like," he added.
Asked if the announcement by the Russian foreign minister, that Russia
would regard the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government as
unacceptable, indicates Russian support for Assad may be softening, Carney
said.
"We certainly agree that any use of chemical weapons is unacceptable, and
anyone responsible for the use of chemical weapons will be held accountable by
the international community."
"We continue to be concerned about the disposition of the Assad regime's
chemical weapons," he said. "We believe that they are still under the control
of the government, and we use every opportunity to remind the Syrian
government that it must maintain control of those weapons and, of course,
never use them."
As for Russia, Carney said U.S. officials are in regular consultations with
the Russians as well as others about the need to form an international
consensus around the notion that Assad must go in order for there to be hope
for a peaceful transition in Syria.
"The longer Assad remains in power, the more deadly the situation becomes
in Syria," he said. "As we have seen in Aleppo today, the longer we go, the
more willing Assad is to take extreme measures to kill his own people." (end)
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