WarSclerotic

Clinton: Syrians must oust Assad, move t… JPost – International.

    Syrians must not only remove President Bashar Assad but also advance toward the rule of law, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Tuesday.

“A democratic transition includes more than removing the Assad regime. It means setting Syria on the path of the rule of law and protecting the universal rights of all citizens regardless of sect or ethnicity or gender,” Clinton said as she began a meeting with Syrian opposition members in Geneva.

She said the opposition understood that Syrian minorities needed to be reassured that they would be better off “under a regime of tolerance and freedom”.

Clinton made the comments shortly after a US official said that the US ambassador to Syria will return to Damascus later on Tuesday, six weeks after he was withdrawn because of threats to his safety.

“Ambassador Robert Ford has completed his consultations in Washington and is returning to Damascus this evening,” a senior US State Department official told reporters.

Ford left Syria on Oct. 24 as a government crackdown on protesters and a nascent armed insurgency against President Bashar Assad intensified, prompting Syria to follow suit and recall its own envoy in Washington.

The ambassador had been due to return by the Nov. 24 US Thanksgiving holiday, but the State Department postponed his return, citing the continued crackdown, decisions by other nations to bring their own envoys home and the question of whether he could move around and be effective in Syria.

Ford had antagonised Syria’s government with his high-profile support for anti-Assad demonstrators. Assad’s supporters had attacked the US embassy and Ford’s convoy.

The United States has repeatedly called for Assad to leave office because of Syria’s handling of the protests, which the United Nations says killed has 4,000 people, including 307 children.

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