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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110510/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_us_syria_5
U.S. Closer to Calling for Assad to Go
(AP) Bradley Klapper and Matthew Lee - The Obama administration is edging closer to calling for an end to the long rule of the Assad family in Syria. Administration officials said Tuesday that the first step would be to say for the first time that President Bashar Assad has forfeited his legitimacy to rule, a major policy shift that would amount to a call for regime change. "We urge the Syrian government to stop shooting protesters, to allow for peaceful marches and to stop these campaigns of arbitrary arrests and to start a meaningful dialogue," State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Tuesday. Two administration officials said the U.S. is concerned about a prevailing perception that its response to Assad's repression has been too soft. They said Assad has dispelled nearly any lingering hope that he can or will deliver on grandiose pledges of reform he has made since coming to power 11 years ago. "We're getting close," one official said on the question of challenging Assad's legitimacy.