Video Plea to Mrs. al-Assad

The wives of European envoys to Syria are reaching out by video to Asma al-Assad, the Syrian first lady, asking her to intervene in the ongoing military crackdown in her country. The wives of the British and German ambassadors to the United Nations released the video Wednesday, calling on Mrs. al-Assad to “stop your husband” and “stop being a bystander.” Violence has hardly been quelled in Syria following a U.N.-brokered ceasefire plan last week. At least 16 people died on Tuesday in government strikes. “We want her to speak out for the end of violence,” Germany’s Huberta von Voss-Wittig says in the video.