Syrian President Bashar al-Assad must step down, even if the new international transition plan for the country does not call for such a step, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Saturday, DPA reported.
"Assad will have to go," Clinton told reporters in Geneva, adding that the plan called for mutual consent among Syrians on a new government - a test al-Assad would fail.
She said the UN Security Council would work on a resolution threatening military sanctions to back up Annan's original six-point peace plan and the new transition roadmap.