The United States closed its embassy in Syria on Monday and Britain recalled its ambassador to Damascus in a new push by the West to get President Bashar Assad to leave power and halt the murderous grind in Syria, now among the deadliest conflicts of the Arab Spring.
After the diplomatic effort was stymied at the United Nations by vetoes from Russia and China, the moves by the U.S. and Britain were a clear message that Western powers see no point in engaging with Assad and now will seek to bolster Syria's opposition.
"This is a doomed regime as well as a murdering regime," British Foreign Secretary William Hague told lawmakers as he recalled his country's ambassador from Syria. "There is no way it can recover its credibility internationally."
President Barack Obama said the Syrian leader's departure is only a matter of time.
"We have been relentless in sending a message that it is time for Assad to go," Obama said during an interview with NBC. "This is not going to be a matter of if, it's going to be a matter of when."
The most serious violence Monday was reported in Homs, where Syrian government forces used tanks and machine guns to shell a makeshift medical clinic and residential areas on the third day of a relentless assault, killing a reported 40 people, activists said. More than a dozen people were reported killed elsewhere.
Those deaths came after a regime onslaught in Homs that began Saturday, the same day Russia and China vetoed a Western- and Arab-backed resolution aimed at trying to end the crackdown on dissent. About 200 people died Saturday, the highest death toll reported for a single day in the uprising, according to several activist groups.
Even as the U.S. steps up pressure on Assad to halt the violence and relinquish power, a negotiated solution remains possible without recourse to outside military intervention, Obama said.
Later, however, White House spokesman Jay Carney said the administration is taking "no options off the table."
In a signal that the window for diplomatic efforts could close, Carney said: "We need to act to allow a peaceful political transition to go forward before the regime's escalating violence puts a political solution out of reach."
U.S. Ambassador Robert Ford and 17 other U.S. officials left Syria on Monday, arriving in Amman, Jordan, several hours later. Ford was to travel on to Paris to spend time with his wife, the State Department said.
As part of what clearly was a concerted Western effort, the Italian Foreign Ministry said it had summoned Syria's ambassador in Rome to express "the strongest condemnation … over the unacceptable acts of violence perpetrated by the regime of Damascus against the civilian population."
More than 5,400 people have been killed in Syria since the uprising began in March, the U.N. said early last month.
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