WarSclerotic

Clinton fends off Arab League cri… JPost – Diplomacy & Politics.

By HILARY LEILA KRIEGER,  JPOST CORRESPONDENT 
07/16/2011 09:38

 

After Nabil Elaraby, in Istanbul, condemns “foreign interference in Syria,” US Secretary of State reiterates Assad “has lost his legitimacy in the eyes of his people”; comments come as 32 Syrian protesters killed.

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  WASHINGTON – US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton fended off criticism from the Arab League over America’s condemnation of Syria, reiterating that the current regime had lost the legitimacy to lead as it killed at least 32 civilian protesters Friday.

“[Syrian President Bashar] Assad has lost his legitimacy in the eyes of his people because of the brutality of their crackdown, including today,” Clinton said during a meeting of the Libya Contact Group in Istanbul. “And we, along with many others in the region and beyond, have said we strongly support a democratic transition.”

She noted that US officials had conducted many conversations with counterparts concerning Syria during the course of the day.

“We’ve made our views very clear, and the messages coming into Syria are remarkably similar, from everyone that I spoke with today,” she said.

Clinton was responding to comments from new Arab League head Nabil Elaraby slamming “foreign interference” in the affairs of Arab countries and declaring that Syria’s governance is “exclusively decided by the people” at a news conference he held Wednesday in Damascus after meeting with Assad.

US President Barack Obama refrained from calling Assad’s rule illegitimate until just this week, months after protesters began taking to the streets and paying with their lives. The Obama administration was much quicker to slap a similar label on the Libyan regime after leader Moammar Qadafi began to kill civilians calling for an end to his rule.

Administration officials explained the discrepancy in part because of the greater Arab support for challenging Qadafi. Syria, in contrast, retains much stronger ties and allegiances from Arab leaders, as demonstrated by Wednesday’s meeting.

Clinton’s comments came as Syrian security forces killed 32 civilians, including 23 in the capital, in a crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations, the Local Coordination Committees grassroots activists’ group said.

Hundreds of thousands of people participated in what were the biggest protests so far against Assad, witnesses and rights groups said.

The casualties represented the highest death toll in central neighborhoods of Damascus since the uprising against Assad’s autocratic rule erupted four months ago in the southern part of the country.

The killings prompted the opposition to cancel a “National Salvation” conference that was due to be held in Damascus Saturday after security forces killed 14 protesters in front of the wedding hall where the conference was scheduled to take place, opposition leader Walid al-Bunni told Reuters.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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