King of Jordan follows Arab League action by saying Bashar al-Assad would resign if he ‘considers the interest of his country’
Jordan’s King Abdullah has become the first Arab leader to call for Syria’s president Bashar al-Assad to step down in the face of a relentless revolt that poses an increasingly grave risk to his regime.
The king appears to have used Saturday’s decision by the Arab League to suspend Syria as cover for his carefully crafted remarks, which sharply increase pressure on Assad to bow to demands for widespread reform.
“If I were in his shoes, I’d step down,” Abdullah told BBC world news. “If Bashar considers the interest of his country, he would step down, but he would also create an ability to reach out and start a new phase of Syrian political life.”
The remarks follow months of silence from Jordan and other Arab states, which have struggled to deal with a string of popular uprisings that are shaking a long-entrenched regional order. They are bound to anger an increasingly isolated regime, whose foreign minister, Walid al-Muallem, railed against the league for announcing it would suspend Syria, a founding member which has long seen itself as a central player in regional affairs.
Muallem described the suspension, due to take effect , as “very dangerous” and an “incitement”. He accused the league of bowing to a foreign plot, and said Syria would stand firm against mounting regional and international pressure.
However, in a significant concession, Damascus has agreed to admit 400-500 monitors, promising access to all flashpoint areas, including the cities of Homs and Hama, where there are armed insurgents. Regime officials claim to have released 553 prisoners since first agreeing two weeks ago to a plan to stop the violence. However, the league has demanded the release of all political prisoners jailed since the uprising began in March.
Opposition activists said some 40 people were killed in fighting between troops and insurgents and army defectors near the Jordanian border. It was not possible to verify the report independently.
The Arab League has not spelled out what sanctions it would impose on Syria, which is already dealing with sanctions by Europe and the US that have crippled its economy. An official said measures could include fresh restrictions on banking and trade; he said the league was also considering referring Syria to the UN security council, where a US-led resolution to threaten further sanctions was only halted by China and Russia.
China’s staunch support for its key Arab world partner appeared to be wavering . However, Russia, which maintains military links to Damascus dating back to the cold war, described the Arab League’s stance as “incorrect”.
The 22-state member body will hold a meeting of foreign ministers in the Moroccan capital, Rabat, on Wednesdaytomorrow to finalise the suspension. Before then, Syria is trying to get a mandatory 15 of the 22 states onside to convene a meeting of league ambassadors in an attempt to stall, or overturn the suspension.
Jordan’s stance is seen as potentially more significant than the league position. During the summer Turkey, which borders Syria to the north, also said Assad needed to introduce wide reforms, or leave. Its position appears to be hardening in the wake of the ransacking of its embassy in Damascus on Saturday night, which Turkish officials said was state-sanctioned.
Other regional heavyweights, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, have so far maintained their silence on the Syrian uprising, which has led to the deaths of more than 3,500 civilians. So far, the tiny Gulf state of Qatar has led the Sunni Arab world’s stance against Syria, with Muallem accusing its rulers of attempting to overthrow Syria’s government.
Conditions in the besieged city of Homs were reported to be worsening on Monday, with residents claiming security forces continue to shell districts and aggressively patrol most neighbourhoods. Defectors from the Syrian military are increasingly organising in Homs.
There are also fresh reports of clashes between defectors and troops in Deraa near the Jordanian border, which is where the anti-government revolt that has swept most parts of the country began in March.
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