Cameron: Syria Needs 'Transition, Not Revolution or Civil War'
The world community must document the atrocities being carried out by the government of Syria against its people to ensure justice is done, British Prime Minister David Cameron said Wednesday.
"We must document the evidence so that those guilty of crimes may be held responsible, whatever it takes," Cameron, who held talks at the White House with President Barack Obama, told reporters at a joint press conference.
"We should be clear, what we want is the quickest way to stop the killing," he said, adding was needed in the country was a "transition rather than revolution or civil war."
Cameron made his remarks as the one-year anniversary approaches of the start of anti-government revolt and the bloody government crackdown that has left thousands of Syrians dead.
Obama also called for world leaders to speak with one voice against the regime in Damascus.
"The best thing that we can do right now is to make sure that the international community continues to unify around the fact that what the Syrian regime is doing is unacceptable," Obama said.
"It is contrary to every international norm that we believe in and for us to provide strong support to continue to talk to the Russians, the Chinese, and others about why it is that they need to stand up on behalf of people who are being shelled mercilessly," he said.
The U.S. leader reiterated an earlier call on President Bashar al-Assad to step aside, and said he and Cameron were in agreement on the need for the world community to clamp down on his regime.
"We agreed to keep increasing the pressure on the regime -- mobilizing the international community; tightening sanctions; cutting the regime's revenues; isolating it politically, diplomatically, and economically," Obama said.
"Just as the regime and security forces continue to suffer defections, the opposition is growing stronger," Obama said.
"I'll say it again: Assad will leave power. It's not a question of if, but when. And to prepare for that day, we'll continue to support plans for a transition to support the legitimate aspirations of the Syrian people."
The two leaders made their remarks a short time after the U.S. State Department said Russia and China have begun "to close some of the gaps" separating them from the rest of the world which has condemned Assad's deadly crackdown on his people.
"You're now seeing public statements, both from Russia and from China, that are quite clearly saying that they are not interested in protecting Assad, that they are not interested in anything but something that ends the violence," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.
It was not immediately clear however whether both powers were any more likely to back any new U.N. resolution on Syria, which in the past they have criticized as unbalanced.
Source: Agence France Presse
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