President Obama said Monday that the U.S. should not intervene militarily in Syria, but he is taking “no options off the table” following a bloody three-day crackdown led by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that killed hundreds of civilians and brutally injured hundreds more.
“It is important to resolve this without recourse to outside military intervention and I think that’s possible,” Obama said Monday after ordering American diplomats out of the Syrian capital of Damascus because of the escalating violence.
That doesn’t mean Obama has ruled out military intervention, said White House spokesman Jay Carney.
“We need to act to allow a peaceful political transition to go forward before the regime’s escalating violence puts a political solution out of reach,” Carney said. But, he added, Obama is “taking no options off the table.”
Obama has called on Assad to step aside following attacks against the anti-government protesters who first took to the streets a year ago as part of the Arab Spring. As the U.S. and allies step up pressure, Assad’s regime is “feeling the noose tightening around them,” Obama said.
Citing security concerns, Obama closed the U.S. Embassy in Damascus Monday and withdrew all U.S. personnel from the country. Britain also recalled its ambassador to Syria to protest the continued violence against civilians.
“The deteriorating security situation that led to the suspension of our diplomatic operations makes clear once more the dangerous path Assad has chosen and the regime’s inability to fully control Syria,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.
Unlike Libya, where the U.S. and its NATO allies used military force to help topple Moammar Gadhafi’s regime, Obama has been adamantly against taking military action in Syria and is instead seeking new ways to punish Assad’s regime. He ramped up economic sanctions against Syria to increase pressure on Assad to resign.
“This is not a matter of if, but when,” the president said.
The Obama administration is reluctant to intervene militarily in Syria because it could provoke Iran, which supports Assad’s government, according to Syria experts.
If the U.S. and other nations begin supplying weapons or providing military support to Syrian rebel forces, Iran may intervene on behalf of Assad, sparking a civil war in one of the world’s most volatile regions, foreign policy analysts warn.
Fear of such escalation is part of what drove Russia and China over the weekend to block a U.N. Security Council resolution that would have forced a political settlement in Syria.
U.S. officials lambasted the veto on Monday, saying China and Russia now have Syrians’ blood on their hands.
“Russia and China will, I think, come to regret this decision which has aligned them with a dying dictator, whose days are numbered, and put them at odds with the Syrian people and the entire region,” Susan Rice, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, told CNN. “They put a stake in the heart of efforts to resolve this conflict peacefully.”
Carney, the White House spokesman, said Russia and China have placed a “losing bet” on Assad, whose future is “very limited at best.”
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the U.S. will expose those who fund and provide weapons to the Syrian regime and work with countries outside the U.N. to increase pressure on Assad through added sanctions.
