The United States is running out of patience with Syria's Bashar al-Assad who threatens to "fan the flames" of sectarian conflict in his country and beyond, US Vice President Joe Biden said. Speaking as 11 civilians were among 23 people killed in Syria and Damascus condemned a UN vote on rights violations by security forces as "unjust", Biden again called on Assad to stand down during a visit to Turkey.
"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 Turkish President Abdullah Gul. Biden's comments were made on Friday at a meeting with Gul in Ankara, a US official said on Saturday.
The United States stands with Turkey "in growing out of patience and calling for President Assad to step aside," Biden added Saturday, addressing an audience of entrepreneurs in Istanbul. Syria meanwhile rejected a UN Human Rights Council resolution "strongly condemning the continued widespread, systematic and gross violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms by the Syrian authorities."
The resolution, passed on Friday, followed a meeting in Geneva to address the findings of the Commission of Inquiry which said security forces had committed crimes against humanity, including the killing of 307 children, in a crackdown on dissent since March.
The Syrian foreign ministry condemned it as "politically motivated and based on false information circulated by parties outside Syria and dishonest press organs," according to a statement carried by state news agency SANA. The Syrian regime's crackdown has claimed more than 4,000 lives according to UN figures. 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 crackdown. In the region, Assad's main ally is Shiite Iran. Turkey, which has a strong Alawite community including some with Syrian roots, shares a border of more than 800 kilometres (500 miles) with Syria. Turkey is also home to a large Kurdish minority, like neighbouring Syria, Iraq and Iran.
Biden said the "number one objective" was to get the Syrian regime to stop killing civilians and for Assad to resign, the official added. The US vice president, who arrived in Turkey from Iraq, also urged Assad to quit power in an interview with the Turkish daily Hurriyet published Friday. He 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. He also criticised Iran, saying the Islamic republic was 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. Seventeen of the deaths in fresh violence in Syria on Saturday happened in Idlib, a focal point of the anti-government protests. Three of the dead were civilians, a human rights group said.
Biden also met Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Istanbul on Saturday and conveyed US support for the fight against PKK, state-run Anatolia news agency reported. The PKK, listed as a terrorist group by Turkey and much of the international community, took up arms in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed some 45,000 lives.
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