Criticism Mounts for Assad to Step Down

Today, Australia Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd, in a joint appearance with his French counterpart, Alain Juppe, stated, “Our view in Australia is that Assad must go.” This echos what Juppe had said previous when meeting with Volkan Bozkir, Turkish parliament’s foreign relations committee head, ”We believe that the [Assad] regime was not willing to implement a reform programme and now it is too late.”

Mohammad Shaqfa, leader of Syria’s Muslim Brotherhood, has called upon the world to isolate President Bashar al-Assad. Shaqfa reported that Syrians are not returning to their homes until Assad leaves and feels the world should follow suit with support against Assad, “The international community should take the right position … They should fully isolate this regime, pull out their ambassadors and expel the regime’s ambassadors.”

Elsewhere in Syria, the cease within the town of Zabadani appears to have been broken. An agreement was reached Tuesday evening to cease fighting, but just before noon on Wednesday morning there were reports of mortar fire.

Update: The Syrian Emergency Task Force issued a press release in which it condemned the Syrian army’s ongoing attacks on students, in and around, Aleppo University. The release stated, “security forces backed by Shabiha have entered numerous residential buildings, destroyed personal property and injured dozens of students – some are in critical condition- by beating students with electric batons and metal chains.” Witnesses have stated that the attack happened suddenly, and they are forbidden to walk around at night.

For the full press release, click here for the PDF