US to tell Syria’s Assad to leave power

In a significant policy change, the Obama administration is preparing to demand the departureof Syrian President Bashar Assad and strike his regime with tough new sanctions, U.S. officials said Tuesday, the Associated Press reported.

The move signaled that American efforts to engage the government and Assad ruling family are finally over.

Officials said the move will be a direct response to Assad's decision to step up the crackdown against pro-reform demonstrators by sending tanks into opposition hotbeds like Hama, where hundreds have been killed. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity, but say the announcement may come as soon as Thursday.

President Barack Obama had previously said Assad has "lost legitimacy" as a leader. The new policy will make it clear that Assad can no longer be a credible reformist and should leave power, officials said.

Meanwhile, the Treasury Department is expected to expand sanctions against Assad, adding several new companies to a financial blacklist that will freeze any assets they have in U.S. jurisdictions and ban Americans from doing business with them, the officials said. Some European countries are still oil partners with Syria.

Although the officials would only speak anonymously, the State Department on Tuesday telegraphed the planned shift in policy, saying the administration's two-year attempt to work with Assad, pull Syria out of Iran's orbit and transform it into a regional partner for peace and stability is over.

Also today, Ahmet Davutoglu, Turkey's foreign minister, urged the Syrian government to stop its bloody crackdown on anti-government protests and take steps to begin a process of reform, Al Jazeera reported.

He said he and Assad discussed "concrete steps" Syria should take to end its crackdown, though he offered few details of what steps the two had discussed or whether Assad had agreed to them. Turkey is a traditional ally of Syria.

"We discussed ways to prevent confrontation between the army and the people in the most open and clear way,'' Davutoglu said.

See GlobalPost Turkey pressures Syrian regime to stop bloodshed.