U.S. urges Arab League for "forceful message" to Assad

The U.S. State Department on Tuesday urged the Arab League to send a forceful message to Syria, insisting that its president Bashar al-Assad must allow for transition and end violence against the civilians. "We were, as I said yesterday, quite pleased with the very strong and forceful statement that came out over the weekend," said State Department spokesman Mark Toner, referring to the decision by the Arab League on Saturday to suspend Syria's membership in this pan-Arab organization. "We look for the Arab League tomorrow to, again, send a forceful message to Assad that he needs to allow for democratic transition to take place and to end the violence against his people," he said, ahead of the Arab League meeting scheduled for Wednesday in Morocco. Besides the suspension of Syria's membership, the Arab league on Saturday called on its members to withdraw ambassadors and impose sanctions on Damascus until it implements a peace plan brokered by the regional body, under which Syria would have stopped violence and withdrawn military vehicles from cities, released detainees and held dialogue with the opposition. Toner said that the U.S. embassy in Damascus reported that 42 civilians were killed by Syrian government forces on Monday, which is described by him as an "increased violence" by the Assad regime against the protesters. He cited the latest sanctions imposed by the European Union against 18 individuals in Syria who are linked to government crackdown and Turkey's strong statement which threatened to cut electricity to Syria if violence continue to escalate. "The drumbeat of international pressure is increasing on Assad, " Toner noted. He also said that the U.S. is in contact with various Syrian opposition groups, including the Syrian National Council. "We've said before that we don't believe they're the sole interlocutors such as the TNC was in Libya, but we do believe that they're very much a credible interlocutor and representing the Syrian opposition," he said. "We certainly do consider the Syrian opposition to be developing to becoming more cohesive as we move forward," Toner added.