The Obama administration declared Wednesday that Syria's government is losing control of the country and said the world must act to prevent the development of a dangerous and violent power vacuum.
The Obama administration declared Wednesday that
Syria
's
government is losing control of the country and said the world must act to
prevent the development of a dangerous and violent power vacuum.
"The Assad regime is losing control of
Syria
,"
a senior administration official said, citing a bombing that killed the
country's defense minister and two other associates of President Bashar
al-Assad.
U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, noting sustained fighting in Damascus,
said the situation was "rapidly spinning out of control."
"It's obvious that what is happening in Syria represents a real escalation
in the fighting," Mr. Panetta said during a news conference at the Defense
Department with the British defense minister, Philip Hammond.
Meanwhile, officials in
Washington
unveiled new
U.S.
sanctions against Syrian government officials and businesses tied to the
country's biological and chemical weapons program as the crisis deepened in
Damascus
on
Wednesday.
Treasury officials designated 29 senior government officials, as well as five
companies with links to nonconventional weapons programs, and a company
controlled by a "corrupt crony" of the Syrian president.
Mr. Assad's government has repeatedly clashed with opposition forces, and
human-rights monitors estimate that more than 17,000 people have been killed
since the antiregime uprising in
Syria
broke
out in March 2011.
"Today's actions reflect the unwavering commitment of the
United
States
to pressure the Assad regime
to end the carnage and relinquish power," said David Cohen, Treasury
undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.
Fighting in the Syrian capital has grown more intense this week as rebel
soldiers have moved reinforcements into
Damascus
. The
Syrian government has responded with using helicopter gunships to strike at
rebel positions on the outskirts of the capital.
Underlying
U.S.
reaction to the developments was an effort to pressure
Russia
into
supporting punitive international measures to force a political transition in
Damascus
.
Moscow
and
Washington
differ on whether a new United Nations resolution should include the threat of
punitive sanctions to force a political transition.
"The next step internationally is for the world to focus on what comes
next, and that means working with international partners to push for a
political transition," the senior administration official said. "The
planning has started but it needs to continue and increase in pace because the
key is we don't want a vacuum."
Mr. Panetta said it was critical for the international community bring
"maximum pressure" on Mr. Assad to step down.
Mr. Hammond said the violence in
Syria
was
getting closer to "the heart of the regime."
"I think what we're seeing is an opposition which is emboldened, clearly
an opposition which has access increasingly to weaponry, probably some
fragmentation around the edges of the regime as well," Mr. Hammond said.
The two leaders also repeated warnings to Mr. Assad to keep control of his
chemical weapons stocks. In recent days,
U.S.
officials have said they believe the Syrian regime has begun to move some of
its chemical weapons from their storage facilities.
"It's something that we've made very clear to them that they have a
responsibility to safeguard their chemical sites and that we will hold them
responsible should anything happen with regards to those sites," Mr.
Panetta said.
The defense leaders also warned
Iran
not
to disrupt shipping in the
Strait of Hormuz
,
through which an estimated 20% of the world's publicly traded oil flows.
On Tuesday, the
U.S.
announced a 20-nation exercise scheduled for September to practice counter-mine
operations. Mr. Panetta said the
U.S.
was
prepared for "all contingencies" in the area and has invested in
weapons systems to counter any Iranian attempt to shut down travel through the
Strait.
International sanctions against
Iran
for
its nuclear program are taking hold this summer, prompting concern about
retaliation by
Tehran
.
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