The embattled Syrian government lashed out at U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for her criticism of Bashar al-Assad’s regime Tuesday and hailed the political leadership’s initiative to pursue reforms, one of which is the just-completed “national dialogue” meeting.
Quoting an official Syrian source, the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency Tuesday upbraided Clinton, who criticized Syrian authorities Monday for not protecting the U.S. and French embassies in Damascus, which were attacked by demonstrators.
Clinton said President al-Assad “has lost legitimacy” and wants to deflect attention from the government’s four-month, internationally-reviled crackdown on peaceful protesters. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has said that about 1,400 civilians and 350 security and military forces have died since the unrest began.
Full story: Syria slams Clinton comments; ‘national dialogue’ ends