(JTA) — The United States is not ready to send troops to Syria, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said.
"Certainly we deplore the violence in Syria," Clinton said during an interview on the "Face the Nation" program on CBS Television that aired Sunday. "We call — as we have on all of these governments during this period of the Arab awakening, as some have called it — to be responding to their people’s needs, not to engage in violence, permit peaceful protests and begin a process of economic and political reform."
Thousands of demonstrators marched in southern Syria over the weekend. On Sunday, protesters called for a nationwide general strike in a country that borders Israel.
Dozens of protesters have been killed in the violence, according to reports. Amnesty International has reported that at least 55 people have been killed in the southern Syria city of Daraa.
Clinton said the situations in Libya, where U.S. troops have joined other allies in protecting a no-fly zone, and in Syria are "unique" and that Syria’s circumstances do not yet warrant a U.S. military operation.
She said the U.S. would require significant international support in order to intervene militarily on Syria.
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