The White House on Thursday angrily denounced a bloody overnight raid on Aleppo University by Syrian troops, and warned that it may soon be time for the world to "admit defeat" in its current strategy to drive President Bashar al-Assad's regime to halt a deadly yearlong crackdown on opposition to his regime.
"If the regime's intransigence continues, the international community is going to have to admit defeat and work to address the serious threat to peace and stability being perpetrated by the Assad regime" via the U.N. Security Council or the ad-hoc "Friends of Syria" group of countries, said spokesman Jay Carney.
For weeks, Carney and other White House officials have expressed frustration with Assad's failure to abide by a ceasefire plan brokered by former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, warning on an almost daily basis that he must comply or face unspecified reprisals from the international community. But Russia and China's opposition to punishing Syria at the U.N. Security Council makes that route difficult to take. And Obama's critics have expressed increased frustration with his refusal to arm Assad's opposition.
On Thursday, however, an Obama national security aide shed a bit more light on why the administration hasn't simply declared that the current Annan plan is a dead letter.
"We remain extremely skeptical about the likelihood of success of the Annan plan," the aide, who requested anonymity, told Yahoo News by email. "However, we support it because we believe it is deterring some regime violence in Syria and will help in the collection of evidence for future accountability."
"Additionally, the Syrian opposition has welcomed the monitors' presence on the ground. We also believe this mission can lay the foundation for a political transition, which remains our goal," said the aide.The comments came after the overnight raid, which began late Wednesday and lasted until dawn, leaving four students dead and 28 wounded. About 200 students were arrested.
"We do condemn the raid overnight of a peaceful student protest in Aleppo that was met with live gunfire, beatings and the arrests of scores of people. These kinds of acts, which are now routine, lay bare this regime's illegitimacy and they underscore the urgent need for a political transition," Carney said.
"We continue to hope that the Annan plan succeeds. And we are working to support it in every way possible. However, it is clear and we will not deny that the plan has not been succeeding thus far, and that the regime has made no effort to take any of the steps required under the Annan plan, including moving toward the implementation of a full ceasefire," Carney said.
More popular Yahoo! News stories:
• Osama bin Laden death anniversary: 10 things we've learned about terror leader since raid
• Obama on bin Laden raid: 'most important single day' of his presidency
• Depressed bin Laden thought about 'al-Qaida' name change, White House says
Want more of our best political stories? Visit The Ticket or connect with us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or add us on Tumblr. Handy with a camera? Join our Election 2012 Flickr group to submit your photos of the campaign in action.
[ [ [['A picture is worth a thousand words', 5]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/why-facebook-bought-instagram-4-theories-160400376.html', '[Related: Why Facebook bought Instagram: 4 theories]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['He was in shock and still strapped to his seat', 9]], 'http://contributor.yahoo.com/join/yahoonews_virginiabeach', '[Did you witness the jet crash? Share your story with Yahoo! News]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['A JetBlue flight from New York to Las Vegas', 3]], 'http://yhoo.it/GV9zpj', '[Related: View photos of the JetBlue plane in Amarillo]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['Dick Clark', 11]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/dick-clark-dies-at-82-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/a/p/us/news/editorial/c/21/c217c61aa2d5872244c08caa13c16ec5.jpeg', '500', ' ', 'Reuters', ], [ [['the 28-year-old neighborhood watchman who shot and killed', 15]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/white-house-stays-out-of-teen-s-killing-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/cv/ip/ap/default/120411/martinzimmermen.jpg', '630', ' ', 'AP', ], [ [['Titanic', 7]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/titanic-anniversary/', ' ', 'http://l.yimg.com/a/p/us/news/editorial/b/4e/b4e5ad9f00b5dfeeec2226d53e173569.jpeg', '550', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['He was in shock and still strapped to his seat', 6]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/navy-jet-crashes-in-virginia-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/cv/ip/ap/default/120406/jet_ap.jpg', '630', ' ', 'AP', ], [ [['xxxxxxxxxxxx', 11]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/russian-grannies-win-bid-to-sing-at-eurovision-1331223625-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/a/p/us/news/editorial/1/56/156d92f2760dcd3e75bcd649a8b85fcf.jpeg', '500', ' ', 'AP', ] ]
[ [ [[' the 28-year-old neighborhood watchman who shot and killed', 4]], '28924649', '0' ], [ [['because I know God protects me', 14], ['Brian Snow was at a nearby credit union', 5]], '28811216', '0' ], [ [['The state news agency RIA-Novosti quoted Rosaviatsiya', 6]], '28805461', '0' ], [ [['measure all but certain to fail in the face of bipartisan', 4]], '28771014', '0' ], [ [['matter what you do in this case', 5]], '28759848', '0' ], [ [['presume laws are constitutional', 7]], '28747556', '0' ], [ [['has destroyed 15 to 25 houses', 7]], '28744868', '0' ], [ [['short answer is yes', 7]], '28746030', '0' ], [ [['opportunity to tell the real story', 7]], '28731764', '0' ], [ [['entirely respectable way to put off the searing constitutional controversy', 7]], '28723797', '0' ], [ [['point of my campaign is that big ideas matter', 9]], '28712293', '0' ], [ [['As the standoff dragged into a second day', 7]], '28687424', '0' ], [ [['French police stepped up the search', 17]], '28667224', '0' ], [ [['Seeking to elevate his candidacy back to a general', 8]], '28660934', '0' ], [ [['The tragic story of Trayvon Martin', 4]], '28647343', '0' ], [ [['Karzai will get a chance soon to express', 8]], '28630306', '0' ], [ [['powerful storms stretching', 8]], '28493546', '0' ], [ [['basic norm that death is private', 6]], '28413590', '0' ], [ [['songwriter also saw a surge in sales for her debut album', 6]], '28413590', '1', 'Watch music videos from Whitney Houston ', 'on Yahoo! Music', 'http://music.yahoo.com' ], [ [['keyword', 99999999999999999999999]], 'videoID', '1', 'overwrite-pre-description', 'overwrite-link-string', 'overwrite-link-url' ] ]
沒有留言:
張貼留言