Guy Verhofstadt, ALDE Leader has referred to the current violent crackdown in several Syrian cities as "the Arab Tiananmen" today in the European Parliament during a debate with EU High Representative, Catherine Ashton and called on her to give Bashar Al-Assad an ultimatum to stop his cruel repression and undertake substantial reforms or face a serious toughening of the EU response.

Verhofstadt stated "What is happening in Syria is nothing less than an Arab Tiananmen.  People are being massacred by tanks and snipers. More than 800 people have been killed and 8.000 arrested and tortured so far.  Soldiers who do not want to shoot demonstrators are shot themselves by secret units in the army.  This makes Bashar Al-Assad one of the most brutal dictators in the world - and the EU response has been to freeze assets and ban visas for just 13 people in the regime not including Al-Assad himself - this is ridiculous."

"The EU High Representative should give Assad an ultimatum of a few days to stop his crackdown or face tougher sanctions including:
- Freeze the assets of all of the Assad family
- Impose a travel ban on the whole Assad family
- Declare that the EU will not consider any member of  the Assad family a representative of the Syrian people and they will be held accountable for their crimes before an international court." Ashton answered Verhofstadt that she would review the list of people in Syria who faced sanctions within a week.  Verhofstadt affirmed that he will hold her to her promise.