The Financial Times reports:
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According to rights groups, around 90 people were killed by security forces on Friday while a further 12 were reported killed at funerals for the victims the next day that were attended by tens of thousands.
The events of the past three days – the most deadly yet in the month-long uprising – have left a negotiated solution for reforms short of Mr Assad’s departure looking increasingly unlikely.
Patrick Seale, an expert on Syrian politics, said: “By using live fire against demonstrators, he has crossed a red line. Either the uprising will be crushed in the next week or two or it will go on sapping the authority and legitimacy of the regime to the point when it would be difficult for the president to remain in power.”
The government on Sunday arrested dozens of people in different cities after two days of intense demonstrations that resulted in at least 100 deaths, rights activists said.
Protesters condemned the violence but vowed to continue to demonstrate against the repressive regime overseen by Mr Assad for more than a decade and by his father Hafez for almost 30 years before that.
In the southern town of Nawa on Sunday, thousands of people gathered for a funeral for protesters killed by security forces and chanted “Down with Bashar!” and “Leave, leave. The people want the overthrow of the regime”, witnesses told Reuters.
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Both Human Rights Watch and an independent commission of jurists have called for an international investigation into the violence, which prompted the resignation of two Syrian MPs from the southern city of Deraa, a protest flashpoint.
UK foreign secretary William Hague said he was “appalled” by the killing of demonstrators by security forces, and urged British nationals to leave Syria while in the US the violence drew calls for the Obama administration to do more.
Joe Lieberman, a hawkish independent senator, said the United States was “not doing anywhere enough to support the freedom fighters in Syria” and urged Barack Obama, US president to apply sanctions to “tie up the [Assad] family’s wealth” and push for a UN arms embargo.
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Analysts said Mr Assad did not appear prepared to make any further concessions and was limited in what he could do by the draconian intelligence apparatus his Ba’ath party has used to crush dissent during its near half-century rule.
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