It’s not a good day to be the president of Syria — and Twitter is basking in it.
This morning four world leaders, including President Barack Obama, called for Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad to step down after months of protests in his country.
“The United States opposes the use of violence against peaceful protesters in Syria, and we support the universal rights of the Syrian people,” said Obama in a statement. “For the sake of the Syrian people, the time has come for President Assad to step aside.”
Since January 2011, more than 1,400 Syrians have been killed and another 10,000 have been arrested in peaceful protest against the 11-year reign of Al-Assad, according to The New York Times. The protests are in response to the state of emergency that’s been in place since 1963, reported Al Jazeera. Under these conditions many constitutional rights, including the freedom of speech, press and assembly, have been suspended.
Obama and leaders from France, the United Kingdom and Germany have promised to impose stronger sanctions “to deepen the financial isolation of the Assad regime and further disrupt its ability to finance a campaign of violence against the Syrian people,” Obama stated.
These announcements took Twitter by storm, where Assad became a worldwide trending topic. The Syrian president has been mentioned more than 26,000 times in the last couple of hours, according to statistics from Topsy, a social media search engine.
Here’s what the Syrian people, and others around the world, are saying about today’s announcements.
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