"It`s not going to be any news if the United States says Assad needs to go," Clinton said, suggesting the world`s reaction to such a move would be, "Ok, fine. What`s next?"
"If Turkey says it, if King Abdullah (of Saudi Arabia) says it, if other people say it, there`s no way the Assad regime can ignore it," Clinton said during an appearance with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta at the US National Defense University.
US officials said privately last week that the United States was preparing to explicitly urge Assad to quit power over his regime`s deadly crackdown on pro-democracy protests, but Clinton made clear Washington was now not ready to do so.
Indicating the Turks, Saudis and other regional powers have more influence on Syria, Clinton said "We don`t have very much going on with Syria because of the long history of challenging problems with that."
When pressed on whether President Barack Obama`s administration should demand that Assad step down, Clinton replied: "I am a big believer in results over rhetoric."
She said the US diplomatic approach toward Syria amounts to "smart power," noting such an approach is an alternative to using brute force and unilateralism.
"It`s being smart enough to say, `you know what, we want a bunch of people singing out of the same hymn book.`" (*)
AFP
Editor: Jafar M Sidik
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
