Assad told to go

THERE was an acceleration of International pressure on Syria's Bashar al-Assad yesterday to step down from his presidency. Co-ordinated statements from Washington, Berlin, London and Paris told him he had lost legitimacy and must stand aside to enable the Syrian people to find a new future for themsleves.

The joint statement signed by David Cameron, Angela Merkel and Nicholas Sarkozy was the more detailed in content and included reference to the calls from the UN and other Arab States, including Saudi Arabia, for a stop to the violence being inflicted on his people by Assad.

Neither in Syria nor in Libya, where significant changes also seem likely soon, will it be easy to build a new nation. In both countries there are many ethnic and religious allegiances which are capable of co-operating against a common enemy but may have little inclination to suppress their special interests when the stake is that of national leadership. The departures of Assad and Gaddafi, if they come about, will be only the beginning of an exceptionally difficult period of transformation during which Western powers will need to act with extreme care. Yesterday there was no word from Turkey, which gave President Assad an ultimatum three days ago. Any attempt to exclude Turkey from developments in Syria and Libya could make an already difficult situation unmanageable and prolong Middle East instability.