Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's departure was "inevitable", a senior US official said on Wednesday. Assad has shown no signs of leaving despite a mounting death toll, Western sanctions, and escalating sectarian tensions between his minority Alawite sect and Syria's majority Muslim Sunni population.
Syrian authorities agreed to an Arab League plan on Nov 2, pledging to pull the military out of restive cities, set political prisoners free and start talks with the opposition, which wants to remove Assad and introduce democratic freedoms.
"Almost all the Arab leaders, foreign ministers who I talk to say the same thing: Assad's rule is coming to an end. It is inevitable," US Assistant Secretary of State Jeffrey Feltman, who is in charge of near eastern affairs, told a Senate panel.
"Some of these Arabs have even begun to offer Assad safe haven to encourage him to leave quickly," he said, not naming countries offering Assad a place to go. He said he hoped Assad and his inner circle would "head for the exits voluntarily".
Since he inherited power from his late father in 2000, President Assad has sought to strengthen his strategic position by reinforcing an alliance started by his father with Shi'ite Iran while backing Arab militant groups and sticking to his father's policy of avoiding direct confrontation with Israel.
Original Page: http://www.dnaindia.com/world/report_arabs-open-doors-as-america-waves-assad-a-goodbye_1610725