Assad must face consequences: Annan US, allies start work on transition plan UNITED NATIONS – UN monitors seeking to reach the site of a new reported massacre of Syrian villagers by forces loyal to President Bashar Al-Assad were shot at with small arms, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Thursday as the United States and its allies in Europe, Turkey and the Arab world agreed in Istanbul to work on a political transition plan for Syria. Ban, speaking at the start of a special UN General Assembly session on the Syrian crisis, condemned the reported massacre at Mazraat Al-Qubeir and called again on Assad to immediately implement international mediator Kofi Annan's six-point peace plan. Ban said UN monitors were initially denied access to the site. “They are working now to get to the scene,” he said. “And I just learned a few minutes ago that while trying to do so the UN monitors were shot at with small arms.” Ban was addressing the General Assembly ahead Annan's expected presentation to the UN Security Council of a new proposal in a last-ditch effort to rescue his failing peace plan for Syria, where 15 months of violence have brought it to the brink of civil war. Speaking to the General Assembly after Ban, Annan also condemned the new reported massacre and acknowledged that his peace plan was not working. Expressing horror at the latest massacre in Syria, Annan told the major powers Thursday that it was time to threaten “consequences” if Assad does not halt the strife. The push for a structured end to the four-decade Assad regime came as US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged Assad Thursday to hand over power and leave his country, condemning a massacre near the town of Hama that opponents have blamed on his supporters as “unconscionable”. Clinton said the United States was willing to work with all members of the UN Security Council, which includes Russia, on a conference on Syria's political future as long as it started with the premise that Assad gave way to a democratic government. “Assad must transfer power and depart Syria,” Clinton told a news conference in Istanbul after meeting foreign ministers from Arab and Western nations to discuss counterterrorism.
