U.S. 'Skeptical' of Assad's Promises to Lavrov

The United States on Tuesday voiced skepticism of promises by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to Russia's foreign minister and said that he should instead immediately end the violence.

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the United States would withhold judgment on Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's visit to Damascus but criticized Assad for making new pledges of domestic reforms.

"You can understand that the international community as a whole would be pretty skeptical of, instead of focusing on ending the violence, what we seem to have is a re-upping of this same offer that Assad has been making for months and months and months," Nuland told reporters.

Lavrov -- whose country is Assad's main supporter -- said that the Syrian leader was "fully committed" to ending the bloodshed and that he would soon announce the timetable for a referendum on a new constitution.

The idea "sounds like another promise by the Assad regime to put forward a piece of paper that they control for a vote that they can control and, frankly, how that gets us to the kind of peaceful national dialogue about a democratic future for Syria that we all want to see is not very clear," she said.

Human rights groups say more than 6,000 people have been killed as Assad puts down a nearly 11-month revolt. Russia and China on Saturday vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution that would have put pressure on Assad.