The United States described Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's national address on Sunday as "yet another attempt by the regime to cling to power and does nothing to advance the Syrian people's goal of a political transition." His initiative is detached from reality, undermines the efforts of Joint Special Representative Lakhdar Brahimi, and would only allow the regime to further perpetuate its bloody oppression of the Syrian people, State Department Spokesperson Victoria Nuland said in a statement.
For nearly two years, the Asad regime has brutalized its own people, she added. Nuland alleged that "Even today, as Asad speaks of dialogue, the regime is deliberately stoking sectarian tensions and continuing to kill its own people by attacking Sunni towns and villages in the mixed areas of Jabal Akrad and Jabal Turkmen in Lattakia province."
The US Government repeated its call on Assad to step aside to enable a political solution and a democratic transition that meets the aspirations of the Syrian people, as the regime has "lost all legitimacy." The United States pledged its continued support to the Geneva Action Group's framework for a political solution, which was endorsed by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, the Arab League, and the UN General Assembly. We will continue our efforts in support of Joint Special Representative Brahimi to build international unity behind it and to urge all parties in Syria to take meaningful steps toward its implementation, the statement added.
Earlier in the day, delivering a speech to the nation, Assad called the people to unite in the ongoing crisis.
"This is a conflict of those who wanted to take revenge against the people to fragment Syria. Those are the enemies of the people and the enemies of God. And the enemies of God will go to hell," the Syrian President said.
Assad also presented a package to politically resolve the crisis. The initiative consists of three phases: a cease-fire, followed by a comprehensive national dialogue on a "national charter", and the establishment of a broad-based government and parliament.
But he did not mention a change of regime, the main demand by the rebels as well as the international community to end the crisis.
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