Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has rejected responsibility for the recent massacre of 108 people in Houla and blamed outside forces for the ongoing violence inside his country. In a lengthy address to Syrian lawmakers on Sunday, Assad called the Houla killings “abominable” and said not even monsters could have carried them out. Assad also cast the crisis in Syria as a foreign conspiracy, calling it “an external war carried out by internal elements.” Assad’s comments come as international envoy Kofi Annan continues to warn of an all-out civil war in Syria amid renewed calls for the implementation of his ceasefire plan. Speaking at a news conference in Stockholm, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the United States wants Russia to stop backing the Assad regime.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton: “We all have to intensify our efforts to achieve a political transition, and Russia has to be at the table helping that to occur. The Syrian people want and deserve change, and that should, insofar as possible, come about through peaceful means, and it must be a change that represents the rights and dignity of all Syrians. Assad’s departure does not have to be a precondition, but it should be an outcome, so that the people of Syria have a chance to express themselves.”