Updated on
Summary Russia and Turkey rejected Western calls for the Syrian President Bashar Assad to step down.
Assad, who inherited power from his father in 2000, is facing the most serious international isolation of his rule. The U.S. and its European allies Thursday demanded he leave power.But both Russia and Turkey Friday dismissed calls for Assad to quit, offering the Syrian leader rare support despite a damning U.N. report Thursday on his “apparent shoot to kill” policy.A Russian Foreign Ministry source said Russia opposes US and European calls for Assad leave power and believes he needs more time to implement promised reforms, while in Turkey. Turkey also believes it is “too soon” to call for Assad’s departure.“We are not there yet. First and foremost the people of Syria must tell Assad to go. This has not been heard in the streets of Syria,” the Turkish official said.“The Syrian opposition is not united and we haven’t seen yet a collective call from Syrians to tell Assad to go, like in Egypt and Libya.”A Russian official, quoted in Interfax news agency said: “We do not support such calls and believe that it is necessary now to give President Assad’s regime time to realize all the reform processes that have been announced.”The position sets Russia firmly against the West, which has stepped up pressure on Assad five months into a violent government crackdown against protesters seeking an end to his rule.Russia, which holds veto power as a permanent Security Council member, has said it would not support a resolution on Syria but did back an Aug. 3 statement that criticized the violence and called for the clampdown to stop.Moscow said this week that in the absence of formal sanctions it would continue its arms sales to Syria. Russia, which has a naval maintenance facility in Syria, has repeatedly urged Assad to carry out reforms and has taken a more positive view of the government’s actions than Western nations have.
