Assad rejects Western calls to quit

A supporter of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad protests in the al-Fanar district of Beirut on Sunday, as the UN mission began its first full day in Damascus to assess humanitarian needs in the wake of the crackdown.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Monday dismissed "worthless" recent demands by Western nations that he step down, warning that any outside interference in the country would be met with severe consequences.

"Such remarks should not be made about a president who was chosen by the Syrian people and who was not put in office by the West, a president who was not made in the US," Assad said during an interview with the country's state television, according to SANA News Agency.

"As for the threat of military action ... any action against Syria will have greater consequences (on those who carry it out), greater than they can tolerate," he warned.

Assad pledged that Syrian local elections would be held in December, before parliamentary polls in February after a new law on political parties comes into effect this week, arguing that security has to be restored before a political solution can occur.

The opposition has dismissed Assad's promised political reforms and many opposition figures have rejected his call for national dialogue, saying no discussions can be had while security forces continue to kill protesters.

UN rights chief Navi Pillay told the Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva on Monday that an estimated 2,200 people have been killed since the start of the protests.

The remark made by Assad was the first response from Damascus to a coordinated move by Western power to pressure the Syrian government into stopping its crackdown.

US President Barack Obama, British Prime Minister David Cameron, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton issued a statement Thursday urging Assad to step down and let Syrians chart their own future.

The Obama administration also broadened its sanctions against Damascus, freezing any Syrian government assets in the US and banning the import of Syrian petroleum products.

In Brussels, diplomats also said that EU governments have "as good as" wrapped up a key deal to ban imports of crude oil from Syria.

However, no country has proposed the kind of action against Syria that NATO forces have carried out in support of Libyan rebels seeking to topple Muammar Gaddafi.

"The Western countries are much more cautious in responding to the Syrian crisis because Syria's geo-political influence is incomparable to that of Libya," said Li Weijian, director of the Research Center of West Asian and African Studies at the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies.

"Syria borders Israel and Iraq and the West sees it as a major ally of Iran. So any reckless decisions made by Western nations might lead to further tension and turmoil," he told the Global Times.

AFP