Clinton Says Time Running Out for Syrians Who Support Assad

Kofi Annan’s admission that his Syrian peace plan is failing should be a “wake-up call” to those who still support President Bashar al-Assad, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said.

Annan, a special envoy for the United Nations and the Arab League, said “evidently we haven’t succeeded” in finding a political solution to the violence in Syria, according to an interview published yesterday in the French newspaper Le Monde.

“Annan was admitting the obvious,” Clinton said at a press conference today in Tokyo. It “should be a wake-up call to everyone.”

Violence in Syria is escalating and June was the deadliest month so far, Clinton said. As many as 17,000 people have died since the start of the crackdown by the Assad government, according to the United Nations.

Rising numbers of defections from the regime, including Assad confident Brigadier-General Manaf Tlas, is a sign that the “sand is running out of the hourglass,” Clinton said.

“The future to me should be abundantly clear to those who support the Assad regime: their days are numbered,” she said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Nicole Gaouette in Washington at ngaouette@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Paul Tighe at ptighe@bloomberg.net