Jordan’s king calls for Assad to step down

A brief mention in the Globe and Mail:

The accumulating criticism of Syria in the Arab world is “a moral boost to the protest movement in the country and the opposition groups outside,” said Ammar Abdulhamid, a Syrian human-rights activist at the Foundation for the Defence of Democracy in Washington. “But it will have no direct practical effect unless it is coupled with greater support to the Free Syrian Army, the establishment of safe zones inside Syrian territories and the imposition of a no-fly/no-go zone.” “The Assads are committed wholeheartedly to the ongoing militarized crackdown,” Mr. Abdulhamid said, “and they will not be moved and removed by mere symbolic gestures and diplomatic pressures.”