Syria's Assad 'poses threat of sectarian conflict'

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad threatens to "fan the flames" of sectarian conflict not only in Syria but in the wider region, US Vice President Joe Biden said in talks with the Turkish president, a US official said Saturday. "Assad and his regime are the source of instability in Syria now and pose the greatest danger to fanning flames of sectarian conflict not only in Syria but beyond," Biden told Abdullah Gul when they met Friday, the senior official told reporters. Assad is from Syria's Alawi minority, while the anti-regime protesters are overwhelmingly from the Sunni majority. Alawis loom large in the pro-regime militias who have taken a leading role in the regime's brutal crackdown that has claimed more than 4,000 lives according to UN figures, sparking mounting sectarian violence in protest centres such as third-largest city Homs. In the region, Assad's main ally is Shiite Iran. Biden said the "number one objective" was to get the Syrian regime to stop killing civilians and for Assad to resign, the official said. Biden, who arrived to Turkey from Iraq, urged Assad to quit power in an interview with the Turkish daily Hurriyet published Friday. "The United States' position on Syria is clear. The Syrian regime must end its brutality against its own people and President Assad must step down so a peaceful transition that respects the will of the people can take place," Biden said. Biden called for a peaceful transition in Syria and broader global sanctions over the crackdown. "Syria's stability is important. That is exactly why we are insisting on change -- it is the current situation that is unstable," Biden said in response to emailed questions from the newspaper. The vice president also criticised Iran, saying the Islamic republic is increasingly isolated in the region due to its "outrageous actions." "The vice president said it was his assessment that Iranian influence in the region was declining and Iranian isolation was increasing as a result of its outrageous actions across the board," the official said. Biden cited Iran's "refusal to come clean on its nuclear programme and its violations of the non-proliferation treaty, the attempt to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington, the assault on the British embassy in Tehran, the threat to Turkey and the NATO radar system, and so forth." Iran will target NATO's missile shield in neighbouring Turkey if it is threatened by military action, the commander of the aerospace division of the Revolutionary Guards said last week. "We are prepared to first target the NATO defence missile shield in Turkey if we are threatened. And then we'll move on to other targets," Amir-Ali Hajizadeh was quoted as saying by the Mehr news agency. Turkey last year agreed to host an early warning radar system in its southeast as part of NATO's shield, which the United States says is aimed at thwarting missile threats from the Middle East, particularly Iran.