Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s road map to end the civil war ravaging his country is “detached from reality” and he should step down, the US State Department said on Sunday.
Assad’s speech “is yet another attempt by the regime to cling to power and does nothing to advance the Syrian people’s goal of a political transition. His initiative is detached from reality”, spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.
Nuland also said that Assad’s proposal undermined the work of special UN-Arab League peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, and “would only allow the regime to further perpetuate its bloody oppression of the Syrian people”.
“For nearly two years, the Assad regime has brutalised its own people,” she said.
“Assad has lost all legitimacy and must step aside to enable a political solution and a democratic transition that meets the aspirations of the Syrian people.”
Earlier on Sunday, Assad delivered a speech in which he outlined a three-phase plan to put an end to the 21-month-old conflict, which the United Nations says has claimed more than 60,000 lives.