President Obama took his boldest step yet in addressing the violent crackdown in Syria today, calling on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to leave office.

"The future of Syria must be determined by its people, but President Bashar al-Assad is standing in their way. His calls for dialogue and reform have rung hollow while he is imprisoning, torturing, and slaughtering his own people.  We have consistently said that President Assad must lead a democratic transition or get out of the way.  He has not led.  For the sake of the Syrian people, the time has come for President Assad to step aside," Obama said in a statement released this morning.

Obama's call for Assad to step down comes after months of protests in which approximately 2,000 Syrians have been killed.  Additionally, Obama issued an executive order which prohibits U.S. persons from investing in Syria; bans imports of Syrian petroleum; and blocks the property of the Syrian government.  To read the full executive order, click here.

Obama's call for Assad's resignation is a welcome development.  The Syrian leader has for months now engaged in brutal attacks on his own citizens, targeting civilian protesters and killing thousands for speaking out against his regime.  He needs to go.

On Wednesday the Security Council released a presidential statement concerning Syria  by Ambassador Hardeep Singh Puri of India, who is the acting President of the Council this month. The statement calls upon Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to implement democratic reforms, demanding a peaceful Syrian-led transformation of government from one that perpetrates crimes against humanity to one that respects and protects fundamental rights and freedoms, such as the freedoms of expression and assembly.

The statement is the first formal UN document to condemn the violence and gross human rights violations that have occurred in Syria since March. The statement calls for:

1. The full respect and protection of fundamental rights and freedoms;
2. Humanitarian workers to have access to the Syrian people;
3. The full cooperation of the Assad regime with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights;
4. Calls upon the UN Secretary General to provide a report to the Council in seven days with an update on government actions in Syria.

This is an important first step towards substantive UN action in Syria and comes after months of pressure from the international community.

"We who did not go their way owe them this. We must make sure that their deaths have posthumous meaning. We must make sure that from now until the end of days all humankind stares this evil in the face...and only then can we be sure it will never arise again." -Former President Ronald Reagan, 1988 Holocaust Memorial Museum

As the above quote from President Reagan illustrates, the United States has felt a moral responsibility for decades to prevent genocide. Our words, however, have not done enough. Just six years after President Reagan's remarks the Rwandan genocide occurred. The world has struggled in its efforts to prevent genocide since the end of World War II, but President Obama is now making an impressive attempt at turning those struggles into an effective effort. President Obama today issued a Presidential Directive on genocide and mass atrocities.  The White House released a statement about this directive and specified exactly why preventing mass atrocities benefits American national security: