David Cameron vows Bashar al-Assad will pay for crimes

DAVID Cameron has spoken of his frustration at Britain’s inability to do more to prevent the slaughter in Syria.The Prime Minister said work was under way to ensure president Bashar al-Assad and his regime could be held responsible for the brutal repression.

But Britain had to be realistic about its capacity to intervene directly, he cautioned, insisting the situation was different from Libya.

The rapidly deteriorating security and humanitarian situation led the UK to announce yesterday that it had withdrawn its diplomatic staff from Syria and closed the Damascus embassy.

Foreign Secretary William Hague, announcing the decision to MPs, urged those fighting for Assad to lay down their arms.

Mr Cameron, who Downing Street said would raise the issue at the European Council summit in Brussels, said the international community was trying to exert “maximum pressure on Assad and his dreadful regime”.

“We’ve been pushing for resolutions at the United Nations, we’ve been working with the Syrian opposition to try to encourage them to be more inclusive,” he said.

“I think we have to keep up that pressure. But we do have to recognise … there are big differences between the situation in Libya and the situation in Syria.

“The biggest difference, of course, being we had the express permission of the Arab League and the United Nations to take all possible measures, to take the military action that we took.”

He hit out at Russia and China for blocking a UN Security Council resolution backing an Arab League peace plan as the pair also voted against a UN condemnation of human rights abuses.

“Above all we have got to hold Assad responsible,” he said. “There is a role for Britain and for others right now to start collecting the evidence to make sure we hold this man to account for what he does no matter how long it takes.

“Britain is building a picture to show these are crimes against humanity and this man may need to be held to account.”