The Syrian people should follow Egypt’s lead and the country’s army should “empower a revolution”, Robert Gates, US secretary of defence, said as thousands marched in a southern city
Mr Gates made his comments – some of the toughest remarks to date by a US official about the rule of Bashar al-Assad, president – on a day of further upheaval in the Middle East and beyond.
The White House signalled that it was preparing for a change in power in Yemen, where it has been allied with the government of Ali Abdullah Saleh, president. Officials also said Nato had neared a deal to take over command and control of the military operation in Libya, after a dispute within the alliance.
Drawing a parallel between the unrest in Syria and the protests that unseated Hosni Mubarak, Egypt’s former president, Mr Gates said: “I’ve just come from Egypt, where the Egyptian army stood on the sidelines and allowed people to demonstrate and in fact empowered a revolution. The Syrians might take a lesson from that.”
His comments came as thousands of people marched on Thursday in Deraa, southern Syria, where at least 44 people are now thought to have been killed in a week of protests, and as Mr Assad announced salary increases and promised greater freedom.
“I would say that what the Syrian government is confronting is in fact the same challenge that faces so many governments across the region, and that is the unmet political and economic grievances of their people,” Reuters quoted Mr Gates as saying during a trip to Israel.
The Obama administration as a whole has been careful to avoid the language of regime change when dealing with the Middle East and it was not clear if the White House shared Mr Gates’ sentiments.
Barack Obama, US president, has argued that the two key principles the US is backing are respect of universal rights and non-violence in dealing with protesters. But with the exception of Muammer Gaddafi, Libyan leader, Washington has not explicitly called for any of the Arab world’s leaders to leave office.
In a difficult balancing act, the administration insists it is popular will, rather than the US’s opinion, that should determine the fate of Arab leaders, while maintaining alliances with strategically important countries.
On Thursday Washington signalled it was ready to deal with a new government in Yemen in the event of Mr Saleh’s departure. “We do not build our policy in any country around a single person,” said Jay Carney, White House press secretary. “And we obviously will look forward to having a solid relationship with the leader of Yemen.”
The US has also condemned the violence in Deraa, which the state department said it was “deeply troubled” by.
In Syria itself, after days of protests and bloodshed, angry crowds turned out for the latest funerals in Deraa amid a huge security presence. Witnesses heard chants of “The blood of our martyrs is not spilt in waste” and “God, Syria, freedom”.
Officials at the main hospital in Deraa have reported receiving 37 bodies, according to Reuters.
Mr Gates, while in Egypt, had called on the Egyptian authorities to give new political forces more time to organise as the country takes its first steps towards democracy
Egypt is due to hold parliamentary elections in September, but the young political activists who launched the revolution have been pressing for a longer transition to allow them to organise. Politicians and analysts say only the Muslim Brotherhood opposition and remnants of Mr Mubarak’s National Democratic Party are sufficiently prepared for elections.
While not openly calling for the elections to be postponed, Mr Gates said: “It is important to allow those new elements that have become active in Egyptian politics – some of them, for the first time – to have the time to develop political parties … so they can play the same kind of leading role in Egypt in the future that they played in bringing about this change in the first place.”
The US official was in Cairo for talks with Field Marshal Mohammed Hussein Tantawi, the defence minister and head of the Supreme Military Council which has been running the country since the fall of the Mubarak regime.
Mr Gates praised Field Marshal Tantawi and the Egyptian military for refusing to use violence against protesters during the uprising.
“He told me the army would protect the people,” said Mr Gates. “And in everything that ensued, he and the army kept their word.”
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