Hillary Clinton urges countries to cut energy, arms ties with Syria

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday urged countries that buy oil or sell arms to Syria to cut those ties, saying Syria clearly would be better off without President Bashar Al Assad, stepping up pressure on the regime in Damascus to end a brutal crackdown on protesters.

“We urge those countries still buying Syrian oil and gas, those countries still sending Assad weapons, those countries whose political and economic support give him comfort in his brutality, to get on the right side of history,” Mrs. Clinton told reporters after a meeting with Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Store.

Mrs. Clinton, when asked in an interview by the CBS Evening News late Thursday why the United States has not yet called for Syria’s president to step down, said Washington wants other nations to add their voices.

The United States has been “very clear” in its statements about Syrian President Bashar Al Assad’s loss of legitimacy, Mrs. Clinton said, according to a transcript of the CBS interview, Reuters reported.

“But it’s important that it’s not just the American voice. And we want to make sure those voices are coming from around the world,” she said.
Mrs. Clinton also said what was necessary to pressure President Assad, whose government has unleashed a bloody five-month crackdown on protesters in cities across the country, was to sanction Syria’s oil and gas industry.

Mrs. Clinton suggested that China and India impose energy sanctions on Syria while she urged Russia to stop selling arms to Damascus, which has bought arms from Moscow for decades, according to AFP

“And we want to see Europe take more steps in that direction. And we want to see China take steps with us,” she said. “There’s no doubt in anyone’s mind where the United States stands.”

She said the “real trick” was to convince “the Europeans and the Arabs and the Chinese and the Indians and others” to do more.

Mrs. Clinton meanwhile welcomed the fact that China and Russia, after refusing to condemn Syria, backed a UN Security Council statement last week denouncing the regime's crackdown.

“We’re going to sanction and we have been upping the sanctions. We're going to continue to do so,” she said. “But we want others to follow, because Syria was not one of our major economic partners.”

Mrs. Clinton added that an organized opposition was also needed to pressure Mr. Assad. She said the United States has been encouraging the opposition to unite, according to Reuters.

“There are Syrian opposition figures outside of Syria and inside,” she said. “But there’s no address for the opposition. There is no place that any of us who wish to assist can go.”

“There are many communities, minority communities within Syria who are frankly saying the devil we know is better than the devil we don’t,” Mrs. Clinton told CBS.

“So part of what we've been doing is to encourage the opposition to adopt a kind of unified agenda rooted in democratic change,” she said, according to AFP.

“So if you’re a Christian, if you’re a Kurd, if you’re a Druze, if you’re an Alawite, if you’re a Sunni, inside Syria there’ll be a place for you in the future.”