Clinton: Assad Has "Lost Legitimacy"

Politico reports:

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton blasted Syria’s government in the strongest language to date, saying President Bashar al-Assad has “lost legitimacy” and is “not indispensable” in the wake of attacks on the U.S. and French embassies in Damascus.

“From our perspective, he has lost legitimacy, ” Clinton said Monday. “He has failed to deliver on the promises he has made.”

And the French prime minister, Francois Fillon, said Assad has “gone beyond all boundaries” and the embassy attacks show “each passing day makes it more and more difficult” for him to stay in power, the Associated Press reported.

The Monday embassy attacks followed visits by the American and French ambassadors to Hama, the Syrian town that has become the center of the anti-Assad resistance movement. No one was injured in the attack on the U.S. embassy, which caused some superficial property damage to the embassy walls and the ambassador’s residence.

Three French officials were injured in the attack on their embassy, the BBC reported.

U.S. Ambassador Robert Ford posted to the embassy’s Facebook wall a lengthy attack on the Syrian government’s crackdown on opposition protesters while allowing anti-American demonstrations.

In her remarks, Clinton continued the American diplomatic assault on Assad.

“If anyone, including President Assad, thinks that the United States is secretly hoping the regime will emerge from this turmoil to continue its brutality and repression, they are wrong,” she said. “President Assad is not indispensable and we have absolutely nothing invested in him remaining in power. Our goal is to see that the will of the Syrian people for a democratic transformation occurs.”