US President Barack Obama told G8 leaders meeting at Camp David that Syrian President Bashar Assad must leave power, and pointed to Yemen as a model of how political transition could work there. Ben Rhodes, an Obama deputy national security adviser, said the recent focus on securing access for UN monitors and keeping track of ceasefires had distracted from the fundamental problems in Syria, where Assad, whose father ruled the country before him, has been attacking protesters for 14 months.
The United Nations estimates some 9,000 people have been killed in Syria since the start of the uprising in March 2011, when unrest that toppled leaders in Egypt, Tunisia and elsewhere was spreading across North Africa. Washington’s patience has been wearing thin with Assad, who said he would adhere to a UN-Arab League peace plan but has failed to bring violence to a full halt, blaming “terrorists” for recent attacks in Damascus and elsewhere.
Rhodes said the G8 leaders – from Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and Canada, plus the United States which is hosting the summit – discussed during their dinner on May 18 how a political transition could take place in Syria. Alone among the eight, Russia has supported Assad and opposed stiffer UN sanctions against domestic.