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Assad may have passed point of no return: Juppe

PARIS — Syrian President Bashar al-Assad may have gone so far in his crackdown on pro-democracy campaigners that there is no way back, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said on Sunday.

Assad had reached “a point of no return”, he told France’s RTL radio.

“I would be happy to admit I’m wrong, but I don’t think so,” he added.

“I regret that the repression continues to unfold in conditions which calls into question the region’s security, because we have reached more than 10,000 refugees in Turkey...,” he added.

He also commented on the refusal of China and Russia, veto-wielding members of the United Nations Security Council, to lift their opposition to a resolution there condemning the Syrian crackdown.

“I regret it, we are continuing to work to get Russia and China to change, to get a declaration that ... calls on Bashar al-Assad to resume the process of reform.”

But he added: “I don’t believe in the ability today of the Syrian president to reverse the tendency, things have gone too far, the repression has been too brutal and too savage.”

According to the Syrian Observatory, 1,342 civilians have been killed in the government’s crackdown and 342 security force personnel have also died.