“I hope our Turkish colleagues will bring every possible pressure to bear on the Assad regime with a very clear message that they are losing legitimacy and that Assad should reform or step aside,” Hague was quoted as saying by The Associated Press on Monday as he arrived in Luxembourg for a meeting of European Union foreign ministers.
In Luxemburg, EU ministers are expected to discuss expanding sanctions on Syria, where the government is brutally cracking down on dissent. In early May, the EU imposed travel bans and froze the assets of 13 people with links to the Syrian regime, but Assad was not among them. An EU official said at the time that the omission was part of a deliberately gradual approach. But the killing of anti-government protesters continued, and in late May the EU expanded the sanctions to include Assad and nine other members of his regime.
Turkey, a close friend of Syria, has repeatedly urged Assad to implement a series of reforms to respond to the demands of anti-regime protesters, but has so far declined to call on Assad to leave power.
