A demonstrator waves a Syrian flag during a protest against Syria"s President Bashar al-Assad at the courtyard of Fatih mosque in Istanbul June 24, 2011.
REUTERS/Murad Sezer
By Khaled Oweis
AMMAN (Reuters) - The United States and European Union called on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down on Thursday and President Barack Obama accused him of "torturing and slaughtering" his own people in what U.N. officials said could be crimes against humanity.
It was a dramatic sharpening of international rhetoric -- major states had urged Assad to reform rather than resign.
But with no threat of Western military action like that against Libya's Muammar Gaddafi, the five-month-old conflict between Assad and his opponents seems likely to grind on in the streets.
Putting faith in sanctions rather than force, Obama ordered Syrian government assets in the United States frozen, banned U.S. citizens from operating in or investing in Syria and prohibited U.S. imports of Syrian oil products.
Though U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Assad had assured him on Wednesday that military operations were over, activists said Syrian forces carried out further raids in Deir al-Zor and surrounded a mosque in Latakia on Thursday.
"The future of Syria must be determined by its people, but President Bashar al-Assad is standing in their way," Obama said. "His calls for dialogue and reform have rung hollow while he is imprisoning, torturing and slaughtering his own people."
In a coordinated move, European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton called on Assad to step aside and said the EU was preparing to broaden sanctions against Syria.
At the United Nations, Britain, France, Portugal, Germany and the United States said they would begin drafting a Security Council sanctions resolution on Syria. "We believe that the time has come for the council to take further action," Britain's Deputy U.N. Ambassador Philip Parham told reporters. Continued...
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