Press Statement
Patrick Ventrell
Director, Office of Press Relations
Washington, DC
June 30, 2013
The United States denounces the Assad regime’s continued attacks against the innocent civilian populations of Homs and the Damascus area. We call on all members of the international community to make clear to the Assad regime that it must cease these attacks and immediately allow humanitarian organizations, including UN agencies and the Red Cross, safe access to evacuate the wounded and provide life-saving medical treatment and supplies, and comply with international human rights and humanitarian law.
There is no justification for the Assad regime preventing humanitarian access to Homs. We will continue to provide the Supreme Military Council (SMC) and the Syrian Opposition Coalition’s (SOC) Assistance Coordination Unit with vital medical supplies and stand ready to assist them in the coordination and provision of urgent assistance. The SMC and the SOC are doing their best to address this latest crisis, and we will continue to do all we can to enable their efforts to aid those who are suffering.
We also condemn the continued attacks on Syrian cities by Iranian backed Hezbollah fighters, as they assist the regime in its brutal suppression of legitimate calls from the Syrian people for freedom, dignity, and democracy. We call on Hezbollah and other Iranian-backed fighters to immediately leave Syria.
In the face of the Assad regime’s unrelenting attacks and its unconscionable use of chemical weapons, the United States continues to stand firmly on the side of the Syrian people in their fight for freedom. We are expanding assistance to the civilian opposition and have expanded our assistance to the Supreme Military Council to strengthen its effectiveness on the ground.
One year ago today, the international community established the framework to reach a durable political solution to this crisis through the Geneva Communique. To end this bloodshed and ease the suffering of the Syrian people, we reaffirm our commitment to this framework and pledge to continue supporting the Syrian Opposition Coalition and the Supreme Military Council to shift the balance on the ground and reach a negotiated political solution to the Syrian conflict. The Geneva Communique stipulates that a transitional governing body would exercise full executive powers and shall be formed on the basis of mutual consent; since the opposition will never agree to Assad staying, he can have no role in the transition.
