A U.S. government spokesman on Wednesday criticized Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for lacking action despite his recent pledge on reform and announcement of a general amnesty, Xinhua reported.
"There's a lots of announcements out of Assad's mouth, but very little in the way of action," said State Department spokesman Mark Toner at the briefing, in response to Assad's announcement of a general amnesty on Tuesday.
"I would just say that what we said in the aftermath of President Assad's speech the other day, which is that words are not enough, that we need to see action, and that they've been very short on any action whatsoever towards any reform, not even meaningful reform." he said.
In a national address on Monday, al-Assad called for a national dialogue on reform, saying that "national dialogue has become the title of the current phase."
"They've thrown around a lot of rhetoric and meanwhile they've used unremitting violence against innocent civilians," Toner said.
"Today, tomorrow would be acceptable to us," he said when asked to comment on Assad's suggestion that a three-month period would be enough time to introduce reforms.
"What's the status quo is unacceptable, carrying out repression and violence against their own citizens," he added.