White House sharpens rhetoric against Syria's Assad

>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House said on Tuesday that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had "lost legitimacy" for failing to lead a democratic transition, but stopped short of explicitly calling on him to step down. It was the strongest language the White House has used against the Syrian ruler over his harsh crackdown on protests and mostly echoed comments by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton a day earlier."Our position is that President Assad is not indispensable and that we had called on him to lead this transition," said White House spokesman Jay Carney. "He clearly has not, and he has lost legitimacy by refusing to lead the transition."The sharpened rhetoric follows an assault by Assad loyalists on the U.S. and French embassies in Damascus, which drew strong condemnation by the United Nations Security Council.Pressed on why President Barack Obama had not gone further and urged Assad to leave office, Carney told reporters: "There's really a growing consensus among the Syrian people that this transition needs to take place and that President Assad is not going to lead it ... The Syrian people will, should, be able to decide their own future."The Obama administration has reacted cautiously to the Syrian government crackdown after working for the past two years to try to woo Damascus away from its alliance with Tehran, and remains mindful of the limits of its influence.Aside from international denunciation, the only concrete response to the violence has been U.S. and European Union sanctions against Assad, family members and aides.Washington has also been worried about instability on Israel's borders and wants to avoid another military entanglement in the Muslim world, where it is involved in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and a NATO air campaign in Libya.But with Monday's assault on the U.S. embassy by what the White House called "thugs," U.S. patience appears to be wearing thin with Assad, who has been trying for four months to stamp out a broad popular revolt with troops and tanks."We've made that clear to the Syrian government, that it is their responsibility ... to provide security for and to maintain security for foreign embassies," Carney said.State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the U.S. ambassador to Damascus, Robert Ford, had met with Syria's deputy foreign minister for talks with "a much more collaborative tone."Syria has accused the United States and France of distorting and exaggerating facts about the embassy attacks.But Nuland said the United States would continue to discuss with allies possible further steps against Syria, including sanctions on its oil and gas sectors and potential referral to the International Criminal Court over the crackdown.(Additional reporting by Andrew Quinn and Laura MacInnis; editing by Christopher Wilson) World United Nations Syria