Syria’s president faces a growing challenge to his iron rule from home and abroad, with renegade troops launching their most daring attack yet on the military and world leaders looking at possibilities for a regime without Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
On Wednesday, France recalled its ambassador to Damascus in the wake of recent attacks against diplomatic missions and increasing violence stemming from the eight-month-old uprising. French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe warned that “the vise is tightening” around al-Assad, and a government spokeswoman said Paris is working with the Syrian opposition to find an alternative to the regime.
The move comes as the 22-member Arab League formally suspended Damascus over the crackdown, which the UN estimates has killed more than 3,500 people, and threatened economic sanctions if the regime continues to violate an Arab-brokered peace plan.
The foreign ministers, meeting on Wednesday in Rabat, Morocco, also gave the Syrian government three days to respond to an Arab peace plan that involves sending an Arab League delegation to monitor compliance.
“Economic sanctions are certainly possible if the Syrian government does not respond,” Qatari Foreign Minister Hamad bin Jassim said.
Gamal Abdel Gawad, an Arab affairs expert in Cairo, said the league’s vote suggests Arab leaders are scrambling to influence the type of regime Syria sees in the future.
“Regime change is unavoidable,” he said.
The growing calls for al-Assad’s ouster are a severe blow to a family dynasty that has ruled Syria for four decades — and any change to the leadership could transform some of the most enduring alliances in the Middle East and beyond.
Syria’s tie to Iran is among the most important relationships in the Middle East, providing the Iranians with a foothold on Israel’s border and a critical conduit to Tehran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon and Palestinian Hamas in Gaza.
Syrian allies in Russia and China also worry that the downfall of al-Assad would seriously hamper their interests in the Middle East.
On the other side of the equation, Sunni powerhouse Saudi Arabia and other US allies in the Mideast have long tried to break the Syria-Iran alliance in a campaign to roll back Tehran’s influence in the region. Al-Assad’s fall could usher in a regime more bound to Sunni power.
Iran has encouraged al-Assad to talk to the opposition and even suggested he cannot rely only on force and intimidation — the same formula used in 2009 by Iran against protesters after the disputed re-election of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Generally, Tehran has mirrored the Damascus line about the unrest, saying foreign powers are stirring up trouble as part of a conspiracy to destabilize Syria.
Javad Larijani, head of Iran’s Human Rights Council, on Wednesday accused the West of incitement.
“Our position is that all the hands should be cut off from this kind of interference. It is up to the people of Syria to decide,” Larijani told a press conference at UN headquarters in New York.
However, as more countries shift away from Damascus, al-Assad’s power could wobble.
Al-Assad, a 46-year-old eye doctor who inherited power 11 years ago, is already facing the most profound isolation of his family’s four-decade rule.
World leaders who once hoped al-Assad could transform his father’s stagnant dictatorship into a modern state are abandoning him in rapid succession.
French government spokeswoman Valerie Pecresse said on Wednesday that Paris is working with the Syrian opposition “to try to develop a political alternative” to his government.
Britain’s Foreign Office said its ambassador would remain in Syria, although it said the matter is under “regular review.”
In Washington, US Department of State spokesman Mark Toner said US Ambassador Robert Ford, who was withdrawn over security concerns, still planned to return to Syria next week.
“Let’s be very clear that it is the brutal tactics of Assad and his regime in dealing with what began as a nonviolent movement that is now taking Syria down a very dangerous path,” Toner said. “We have said all along the brutal crackdown by the Syrian government would engender this kind of reaction.”
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