The State Department waited to announce the embassy closing until the ambassador to Syria, Robert Ford, and other staffers left Damascus. Surging violence, including two recent bombings in the capital, “raised serious concerns” that the mission was “not sufficiently protected from armed attack,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.
BY HANNAH ALLAM AND JONATHAN S. LANDAY | MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS
CAIRO — The United States scrambled Monday to salvage an Arab peace initiative aimed at halting Syria’s descent into all-out civil war, closing its embassy in Damascus and deliberating with European and Arab allies on other measures to force President Bashar Assad to surrender power.
As new shelling of the city of Homs was reported, the diplomatic efforts came two days after Russia and China blocked the U.N. Security Council from endorsing the Arab League plan to have Assad step down as part of a transition to democracy.
“We believe that the right solution in Syria is a political solution,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said. “We’re carefully considering a full range of options. And we’ll work closely with our allies and others to help the people of Syria put an end to this criminal regime.”
There was scant prospect, however, of the mayhem ending soon. Western and Arab powers ruled out military intervention, and Russia and China defended their U.N. vetoes, contending that the Arab plan called for regime change.
“We don’t have any imminent need to do any military planning because there is such a remote chance to be involved based on the current political situation,” said a senior NATO military official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly about alliance deliberations.
President Barack Obama said a negotiated settlement was still possible. Assad’s departure wasn’t “a matter of if (but) a matter of when,” he said in an NBC interview.
But with civilian casualties rising, the Syrian opposition increasingly staked their hopes with the Free Syrian Army, a loosely organized group of lightly armed civilians and army deserters battling to hold slivers of territory against one of the Middle East’s biggest armies and thugs loyal to the 42-year Assad family dictatorship.
“The only solution is to back the Free Syrian Army,” said Ramy Jarah, an opposition activist who fled to Egypt several months ago.
The longer the conflict rages, however, the greater the threat that it could turn into a civil war between diverse religious and ethnic communities that could spread past Syria’s borders, infecting a region fraught with age-old disputes and new political tensions ignited by last year’s Arab Spring uprisings.
“There is a lot of danger coming out of a destabilized Syria,” said Andrew Tabler of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
The State Department waited to announce the embassy closing until the ambassador to Syria, Robert Ford, and other staffers left Damascus. Surging violence, including two recent bombings in the capital, “raised serious concerns” that the mission was “not sufficiently protected from armed attack,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.