BRUSSELS, Belgium — The European Union told Syrian President Bashar al-Assad yesterday to step down, joining a similar call by the United States to put pressure on his government.
The EU’s 27 governments also threatened to extend sanctions against Assad’s government but, unlike Washington, stopped short of announcing specific new measures for now.
“The EU has repeatedly emphasized that the brutal repression must be stopped . . . The Syrian leadership, however, has remained defiant,” the EU’s foreign-policy chief, Catherine Ashton, said in a statement.
“This shows that the Syrian regime is unwilling to change . . . The EU notes the complete loss of Bashar al-Assad’s legitimacy in the eyes of the Syrian people and the necessity for him to step aside,” she said.
President Obama said new sanctions will freeze all Syrian government assets subject to US jurisdiction and prohibit investment in Syria.
Ashton said the EU’s 27 governments condemned “in the strongest terms” Assad’s violence against demonstrators contesting his family’s four-decade rule.
EU diplomats are scheduled to discuss sanctions in Brussels today, opening the way for any new measures to go into effect as early as next week.