国产热热热精品,亚洲视频久久】日韩,三级婷婷在线久久,99人妻精品视频,精品九热人人肉肉在线,AV东京热一区二区,91po在线视频观看,久久激情宗合,青青草黄色手机视频

Obama calls on Syria's Assad to step down

Updated: 2011-08-18 22:54

(Agencies)

  Comments() Print Mail Large Medium  Small 分享按鈕 0

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama on Thursday for the first time called on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down.

"For the sake of the Syrian people, the time has come for President Assad to step aside," Obama said in an executive order imposing sanctions to freeze all Syrian government assets under US jurisdiction and bar US transactions with Assad's government.

The moves are intended to ratchet up pressure on Assad, who has used his military and security forces to attack protesters seeking an end to four decades of authoritarian rule by the Syrian president and his late father, Hafez al-Assad.

While the United States has previously called for Assad to embark on democratic reforms or to get out of the way, Obama's statement marks the first explicit call for him to go and seems to reflect a US conclusion that he is incapable of reform.

The US sanctions and demand for Assad's exit were followed by a call from Britain, France and Germany -- three of the European Union's leading powers -- for Assad to go.

The new US sanctions immediately freeze all Syrian government assets subject to US jurisdiction and prohibit any any transactions involving the Assad government.

They also ban US imports of Syrian petroleum or petroleum products -- a tiny fraction of US oil imports -- and prohibit US citizens from operating or investing in Syria.

The United States has already imposed several rounds of sanctions on Assad and other Syrian officials and financial institutions but these are believed to have had little impact given the limited nature of US-Syrian dealings.

The United States has long accused Syria of being a state sponsor of terrorism, of meddling in the affairs of Lebanon, supporting Palestinian militants and fomenting violence against US forces in Iraq.

 

Hot Topics

The European Central Bank (ECB) held a conference call late on Sunday ahead of the market opening, pledging the ECB will step in to buy eurozone bonds with efforts to forestall the euro zone's debt crisis from spreading.

太白县| 突泉县| 台安县| 肥乡县| 富川| 青神县| 荆州市| 北安市| 凤山市| 永福县| 阜新市| 甘洛县| 锡林浩特市| 滦平县| 佛冈县| 东光县| 深圳市| 昌平区| 桂东县| 灵丘县| 阳江市| 本溪| 枣庄市| 金昌市| 苍南县| 什邡市| 平顺县| 海口市| 壶关县| 濮阳市| 晴隆县| 新乐市| 永安市| 揭东县| 周至县| 临城县| 诸暨市| 广宁县| 青神县| 克拉玛依市| 云霄县|