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J. Scott Applewhite/AP
With concern mounting over the crisis in Syria and President Bashar Assad's crackdown on dissent, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, below right, meets with a small group of expatriate Syrian opposition members Tuesday at the Intercontinental Hotel in Geneva, Switzerland.
The United States called for a new regime of tolerance and freedom in Syria on Tuesday as forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad battled fighters infiltrating the country to join the growing rebel army trying to overthrow him.
Speaking after meeting members of the opposition Syrian National Council in Geneva, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Syrians must not only remove Assad but also advance towards the rule of law.
"A democratic transition includes more than removing the Assad regime," Clinton said.
"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," she told reporters.
'Armed terrorists'
What began nearly nine months ago as a peaceful protest against Assad, inspired by the Arab Spring in Tunisia and Egypt, is creeping closer to civil war as armed opposition groups organize and move into some city districts.
The United States, the European Union, Turkey and Jordan have called on Assad to step down in order to bring the violence to an end and permit democratic elections for a new government in a country where the Assad family has ruled for 40 years.
Time Magazine's Bobby Ghosh explains the uprising in Syria.
On Tuesday, the official Syrian news agency SANA reported that Syrian border guards blocked an infiltration attempt from Turkey by about 35 "armed terrorists."
US ambassador returning
The meeting in Geneva came as the State Department announced that the U.S. Ambassador to Syria, Robert Ford, is returning to his post in Damascus.
Ford, who was recalled in late October, is due to return to Syria overnight despite the Assad government's continuing crackdown on reformers, the department said. The administration has argued that Ford's presence in Syria is important for advancing U.S. policy goals by meeting with opposition figures and serving as a witness to the ongoing violence.
"He will continue the work he was doing previously; namely, delivering the United States' message to the people of Syria; providing reliable reporting on the situation on the ground; and engaging with the full spectrum of Syrian society on how to end the bloodshed and achieve a peaceful political transition," State Department spokesman Mark Toner said in a statement.
"We believe his presence in the country is among the most effective ways to send the message that the United States stands with the people of Syria," he said.
Ford was brought back from Syria on Oct. 22, prompting the Syrian government to recall its ambassador to Washington.
In September, Ford and several colleagues were pelted with tomatoes and eggs by a violent mob as they entered the office of a prominent Syrian opposition figure. No one was injured, but officials said several heavily armored embassy vehicles sent to help extricate them from the situation were badly damaged with broken windows and dents when the same crowd hurled rocks.
Ford has angered the Syrian regime by visiting protest centers outside of Damascus in a show of solidarity with the anti-government uprising. Those incidents have further raised tensions between Washington and Damascus, which has accused the United States of helping incite violence in Syria.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
Also in World News:
- Clashes break out in two Russian cities
- Dozens of bodies dumped in Syrian city, activists say
- Photoblog: Hezbollah chief makes rare public appearance
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Assad must give up the facade of Democratic reforms and step aside so real reforms can take place. The sooner Assad gets out of the way and democracy is given a chance to flourish in Syria, the sooner we are likely to see the same in Iran. Wouldn't it be great if the problems of the ME were able to be resolved by the people booting out their dictators, enabling democracy to flourish and attempting to resolve regional and world issues via rational diplomacy instead of by threats and military action. Unfortunately, I do not believe the Iranian leadership will willingly allow the Assad regime to be taken down. they know they are next in line if that were to happen. So don't be surprised to see Iran providing military support to Assad if this thing heats up any further.
BTW, once Assad is out of the way, it should make it much easier to gain Syria's cooperation should it become necessary to to take military action to stop Iran's nuclear weapons program.
And let's not forget that the movement, throughout the ME, to oust the dictators would probably not be taking place if we had not attacked Saddam and taken him out of power in Iraq.
King, you live in a fantasy. The "Arab spring" is going very well for Iran. They just took over Egypt while the US spent 100 million or so booting out Mubarak so that Iran could slip in when the void was created. The secularists are about 20 percent of the ME. Not the majority at all. This crazy notion that the ME wants something like what the US sees as democracy is a pipe dream. Iran is winning. Winning very big because Obama and Clinton are extremely naive. Iran is using our money and winning the day. Keep in mind that after Mubarak was thrown out, Clinton asked to meet with the protesters and they refused to meet with her. What do you think that says?
Democracy for Middle East = Islamic Dictatorship because the majority of supertitious people believe in Allah's law before man's law.
Is it really that hard for Americans to understand thats what the majority wants, and not freedom?
From the creators of "IRAQ: GREETED AS LIBERATORS"
and the producers of "AFGHANISTAN: 11 YEARS AND WE STILL HAVEN'T DEFINED VICTORY"
comes the Hillary production "SYRIA: THE WAR THAT FINALLY BANKRUPTED OUR A$$"
Ms. Clinton, what about the other 22 League of Arabs states? The League of Arabs States are run by Unelected Fascist Dictators, UFDs as I call them. Yet the Corporate Media and American politicians call them Presidents and Kings. So you have a groups of Murderous Unelected Fascist Dictators telling another Murderous Unelected Fascist Dictator to leave. You've got to love our Corporate Media!
Shhh, those are the ones we invade later ;)
If you look closely at all the people in the “article picture” it is very obvious that they are all staring at Hillary’s new hair style. The “pony tail hairdo” was supposedly dubbed the “horses arse” by everyone in attendance.
I dont think Assad gives a crop! Arab leaders will not give up their seat not unless we use force. they love power so much! they are welling to kill millions for it :( so sad and I feel sorry for those people
if Assad was a real Muslim men, he would of stepped out and let someone else make a difference for the sack of his people, Prophet Mohammed (PBUOH) said: dont give leadership to whom is bagging for it, instead give it to whom is knonw of been good and honest and fair among you.
The point is he IS a real muslim which is why he is killing. It is in their nature.
And also, prophet mohammed is the 1 that did what Assad did, please go through history, follow me or die. He led a warband, not democratic acceptance of islam when he started off.
Democratic acceptance of Islam?
I dunno, did Moses take a vote when G_d handed down the Ten Commandments?
Religion ain't a democracy.
Your remarks remind me of a sneering Nazi smirking as he opens the gas valve, knowing he is one of the master race.
Great racism ya got there!
Your grasp of biblical fables is only exceeded by your ignorance concerning WWII ... how does one think of Moses and gas chambers can only be fascinatiing to psychopaths and other weird people.
Uh, only responding to the previous poster's religious fables, or did you miss that?
And yeah, when someone calls an entire culture evil, yeah I object.
That's arrogant and racist, no better an attitude than a Nazi pig.
Obama's "Puppette" Hillary, tells Syrians they "must do more" to oust Assad. Meanwhile Hussein packs for a 17 Day tax payer funded Hawaiian "vacation." Either Help or Shut Up! Oh, I forgot, NO Oil, NO Help. Sorry Syrians, 4000+ DEAD and more to come. While Hillary keeps Flapping her lips. Monica, Hillary, What's the Difference?
We have an efficient and effective Republican Congress now. I'm sure they'll pick up the slack and solve all the world problems while Obama takes a whole two illegal and unprecedented weeks off for Christmas.
dante2308 : US are known of minding people business and fighting and bringing justice in the world. Why not syria? I dont know why they are not putting their foot down and mean it to Syrian President to stop the killing or face invasion
US likes to play pick and choose who we re going to help and they re good with excuses either excuse to invade u or to stay away from ur problems
it s not about protecting human lifes any more! it s all politics when it comes to live or die.
Also US is doing a good favor for Israel not interupting the muslim killing, the less headache Israel have to deal with since Syrian Muslims are not too friendly with Israelis!
No, actually the US isn't responsible for overthrowing and invading every country with a human rights violation. If you are comparing this to Libya where West-supporting rebels begged for NATO help, perhaps you should be outraged about the human right violations in China, North Korea, Myanmar, Thailand, Sudan, Cuba, Russia, Cote d'Ivore, ect and join the military so we can take down each and every one of them at once.
By the way, no one in Syria wants out military to start bombing them and invading them isn't even possible or beneficial. Perhaps wherever you are from can start taking over. I'm a bit sick and annoyed at people telling America it has to send it's solider to die for other countries because they had a single no-fly zone. America doesn't have to do anything. Go deal with it yourself.
you re missing my point! but I understand where you re coming from...
Yeah, as much as I would like our senators to step down as well, I wont be so happy if another country, say Russia, starts bombing DC to make it happen. Heck, my home might get flatten by these peace keeping bombs in the process if that were to happen.
The chance of Russia bombing the U.S. is about the same as Canada invading Israel. Unlikely, and I'm being kind here.
I just dont know where US Gov. is going with this!
US is fighting Islam = God = you lose at the end no matter how strong you are! this War on Muslim world will not end good at all, one day we will regret this! I hope and pray that some miracle form of peace will happen to end all War once and for all
We think things are getting better but only getting worse but we choose to fight it to the end
it doest mean we can fight we are right!
I believe if Israel did not exist or did not been located in the middle east, many war, many lifes would of been saved today but I could wrong too
Maxeemas,
The US is not fighting Islam. In the last 10 years the US has overthrown three murderous dictators and broken the back of a terrorist organization. They haven't forced anyone to convert and they haven't put anyone in concentration camps.
If you are saying that Saddam, Ghaddafi, and Muhammed Omar/Osama Bin Laden are the pillars of the religion of Islam then that's something else all together. You are wrong. Islam isn't whatever was running Libya. In each Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya, we had allies in the country who were definitely Muslim (Northern Alliance, Kurds, Libyan rebels). Maybe you haven't checked but, "fighting to the end" is also known as attempted genocide.
Leave your antisemitism at the door. You can't stop the Israeli people from existing. Anyone who tries will themselves face suffering, death, and the hellfire.
I'm not pro-war, however if America was at war with Islam, there would be several differences.
Does it seem that every time we have tried to tell another country what to do or try to impose our will, it has been a disaster?
The issue is that those fighting for freedom and democracy are not that much different in beliefs and may be even more radical. Often one finds that one dictator is overthrown by the next dictator who is just as bad or worse. When taking over in a violent upheaval the first things that usually go are human rights as any opposition or minority group is seen as a threat and thus must be contained or destroyed. Just like in Libya and Egypt we may not get the happy democratic human rights loving government we hope for.
Yes - they must do more. Next up - elect a extreme Islamic government. Follow Egypt.
what is an 'extreme' islamic govt?
Extreme Islamic Gov.....
We have Christians here in US who still go by the Bible, can we call them extremest?
Extreme is when you Go by and force God s message from your own believe word for word
The problem today is every religion want to compete except we USA want to do the same thing but under other Laws we made! you think it s gona work?
it s hard to apply and make people go by God s word! you think US will be able to change the world? I dont think so! not in a million years
"fighters infiltrating the country" ... where do these people come from? For sure not from Iran, since they support Syria.
Is it possible that it is the same group of trained agents who did Lybia, etc. ?
Probably elite mercenary groups trying to profit from the conflict by offering their skills and weapons for hire. Or like you said a group of young fighters from Lybia still on a high from their war and seaking glory and adventure on the battlefield.
They could also just be some people who want to make a difference and are tired of just standing by and waiting for the conflict to reach them.
The "elite" of this country is not an elite at all. They are just people who either had/have big money or kiss the butts of those with money. In order to do this you don't need to be well educated or follow any common moral values. You don't need to know how it is to work hard or be honest. You simply need to use your influence and believe or hope everything will go that way.
Unfortunately things are a little more complex than just the way these "elite" idiots think. Look at the wars the US ran for the last decade or more. There's no deep planning, no real organization in it ... but just an idea how to start the wars, without much deep brain storming about what will happen afterwards.
Oh, stop ... do you mean the Govt hired the D.C. Think Tanks to do the "think job" for them? What a dumb trap !!!! Because those Think Tanks have "infused" their findings with their OWN AGENDA. And now we all see what the outcome of it is. That's why it is hard to put the blame on a specific influence group there ... BECAUSE THEY ARE ALL RESPONSIBLE for the situation in the US today !!!
It is none of US business who is in charge of Syria.
Think just how fortunate the middle east and Africa is to have the US to dictate their governmental polices.
Democracy in Middle East = Islamic Dictatorship.
This is because the majority of the people there are supertitious muslims who believes in killing Americans for virgins and wanted their Allah's law to be above man's law.
Is it really that hard for Americans to imagine that the majority people of another culture might want things differently? Is Egypt's muslim brotherhood not an obvious sign yet?
Who in the hell is Hillary Clinton to tell another country what they should or must do ? Perhaps Al Qaeda will give her the Daniel Pearl treatment and shut her damned mouth once and for all.
Perhaps Clinton should also tell israel to do more than remove nittyahoo/liebermann clique.
Love that ponytail.
Down with Western democracy. Up with Islamic democracy. Sharia Law over all other law. Establish the Islamic Sultanate over the entire world.Back to the 8th century.