Latest news reports showed an agreement between Russia and the Arab League on a five-point initiative to cease-fire in Syria. The Russian FM, Lavrov, agreed to not use the Russian veto in the UNSC in a new resolution based on the initiative, which also allows for humanitarian assistance and negotiations.

Arab League and Russia rule out intervention in Syria

 

Russian and Arab League ministers agreed on Saturday there should be no foreign intervention in Syria. After the meeting in Cairo, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (pictured) said delegates wanted an "end to the violence whatever its source".

By News Wires (text)

AFP - Arab and Russian foreign ministers meeting in Cairo on Saturday called for an end to the violence in Syria "whatever its source", as they try to reach common ground on ways to resolve the deadly conflict.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters after a meeting at the Arab League headquarters on Syria that he and his Arab counterparts want "an end to the violence whatever its source."

Reading out a joint statement, Lavrov and Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim Al-Thani said they also agreed on setting up a mechanism for "objective monitoring" in the conflict-stricken country, and had agreed on no foreign intervention there.

They also called for "unhindered humanitarian access" in Syria and support for the mission of UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan to Damascus.

They said the five-point statement was based on the General Assembly resolution passed on February 16 and on previous Arab resolutions.

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  Kofi Annan arrives in Syria amid fresh crackdowns
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  Assad vows to fight ‘foreign-backed terrorists’
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  Syrian forces kill dozens on eve of Kofi Annan visit

Date created : 10/03/2012

'Terrorists' are preventing peace, Assad tells Annan

 

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad warned the UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan on Saturday that peace efforts would end in failure as long as “terrorist groups” remain active in the country. Assad did promise to back any “honest” bid to end the crisis.

By News Wires (text)
France 24, 2012

REUTERS - President Bashar al-Assad told U.N./Arab League envoy Kofi Annan on Saturday that no political solution was possible in Syria while “terrorist” groups were destabilising the country.

“Syria is ready to make a success of any honest effort to find a solution for the events it is witnessing,” state news agency SANA quoted Assad as telling his guest.

“No political dialogue or political activity can succeed while there are armed terrorist groups operating and spreading chaos and instability,” the Syrian leader said after about two hours of talks with the former U.N. secretary-general.

While they discussed Annan’s peace mission, Syrian troops were assaulting the northwestern city of Idlib, a rebel bastion.

ESCAPE FROM SYRIA THE INTERVIEW William Daniels, photographer

“Regime forces have just stormed into Idlib with tanks and heavy shelling is now taking place,” said an activist contacted by telephone, the sound of explosions punctuating the call.

There was no immediate comment from Annan after his meeting with Assad, aimed at halting bloodshed that has cost thousands of lives since a popular uprising erupted a year ago.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who met Annan in Cairo earlier in the day, told the Arab League his country was “not protecting any regime”, but did not believe the Syrian crisis could be blamed on one side alone.

He called for a ceasefire and humanitarian aid access, but Qatar and Saudi Arabia sharply criticised Moscow’s stance.

“Truce not enough”

Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani, whose country has led calls for Assad to be isolated and for Syrian rebels to be armed, said a ceasefire was not enough. Syrian leaders must be held to account and political prisoners freed, he declared.

Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal said shortcomings in the U.N. Security Council, where Russia and China have twice vetoed resolutions on Syria, had allowed the killing to go on.

International rifts have paralysed action on Syria, with Russia and China opposing Western and Arab calls for Assad, who inherited power from his father nearly 12 years ago, to quit.

Annan also planned to meet Syrian dissidents before leaving Damascus on Sunday. He has called for a political solution, but the opposition says the time for dialogue is long gone.

“We support any initiative that aims to stop the killings, but we reject it if it is going to give Bashar more time to break the revolution and keep him in power,” Melham al-Droubi, a Saudi-based member of the Muslim Brotherhood and of the exiled Syrian National Council, told Reuters by telephone.

“We hope that Annan convinces Bashar to stop the killings, step down and call for a parliamentary election,” he said, expressing scepticism that Assad would respond positively.

Annan’s trip to Damascus followed a violent day in which activists said Assad’s forces killed at least 72 people as they bombarded parts of the rebellious city of Homs and sought to deter demonstrators and crush insurgents elsewhere.

Decisive victory has eluded both sides in an increasingly deadly struggle that began as a mainly peaceful protest movement a year ago and now appears to be sliding into civil war.

Russia pivotal

The United Nations estimates that Syrian security forces have killed well over 7,500 people. Syria said in December that "terrorists" had killed more than 2,000 soldiers and police.

Russia, one of Syria’s few foreign friends and its main arms supplier, could play a pivotal role in any negotiated solution.

“If (Annan) can persuade Russia to back a transitional plan, the regime would be confronted with the choice of either agreeing to negotiate in good faith or facing near-total isolation through loss of a key ally,” the Brussels-based International Crisis Group said in a paper this week.

Chinese and Russian reluctance to approve any U.N. resolution on Syria stems partly from their fear that it could be used to justify a Libya-style military intervention, although Western powers deny any intention to go to war again in Syria.

A Russian diplomat said this week Assad was battling al Qaeda-backed militants, including 15,000 foreign fighters who would seize cities if Syrian troops withdrew.

The Syrian opposition denies any al Qaeda role in the uprising, but Islamists are among rebels who have taken up arms against Assad under the banner of the Free Syrian Army.

Qatar’s Sheikh Hamad chided Russia for accepting the Syrian government’s portrayal of insurgents as armed gangs.

“There are no armed gangs, the systematic killing came from the Syrian government side for many months. After that the people were forced to defend themselves so the regime labelled them armed gangs,” he told the Arab League meeting.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will meet Lavrov in New York on Monday on the sidelines of a special U.N. Security Council ministerial meeting on Arab revolts, with Syria likely to be a central topic.

54 killed in Syria ahead of Annan peace mission

Ma'an, 10/03/2012

AMMAN (Reuters) --

Syrian forces killed at least 54 people on Friday as they sought to quell demonstrations against President Bashar Assad before a peace mission by UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan, opposition activists said.

Tank rounds and mortar bombs crashed into opposition districts in the rebellious central city of Homs, killing 17 people, activists said, while 24 were killed in the northern province of Idlib and more deaths were reported elsewhere.

"Thirty tanks entered my neighborhood at seven this morning and they are using their cannons to fire on houses," said Karam Abu Rabea, a resident in Homs's Karm al-Zeitoun neighborhood.

One focus of demonstrations was the anniversary of Kurdish unrest in Syria in 2004 when about 30 people were killed.

Many thousands of Kurds demonstrated in northeastern cities, YouTube footage showed, some carrying banners that read "Save the Syrian people". Other clips showed hundreds of protesters in the Assali district of Damascus, burning posters of Assad's father Hafez al-Assad and chanting "God damn your soul, Hafez".

Syria's state news agency SANA reported big pro-Assad demonstrations in Damascus and Hassaka in the northeast.

Tight media restrictions imposed by authorities make it hard to assess conflicting accounts of events on the ground.

Street protests have swelled every Friday after Muslim prayers since the anti-Assad revolt erupted a year ago, despite violent repression by the military and loyalist militias.

Decisive victory has eluded both sides in an increasingly bloody struggle that appears to be sliding into civil war.

Aid access

UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos, who visited Homs this week, said Assad's government had agreed to join UN agencies in a "limited assessment" of civilian needs in Syria, but had not met her request for unhindered access for aid groups.

Syrian officials had asked for more time, she told a news conference in Ankara after visiting Syrian refugees arriving in growing numbers in border camps in Turkey.

Amos said she was "devastated" at the scenes of destruction she saw in Homs and that she wanted to know the fate of civilians who had lived in the city's Baba Amr district, which rebel fighters left on March 1 after a 26-day siege.

Activists in the city said Amos's visit had changed nothing. "We want to stop the killing and to eat," said Waleed Fares, speaking from Khalidiya district in Homs.

The United Nations estimates at least 25,000 refugees have fled Syria in the past year, said Adrian Edwards, a spokesman for the UN refugee agency.

The UN figures were based mainly on refugees who have registered with the UNHCR. Many others have fled to neighboring countries without registering. Edwards said significant numbers of Syrians are also thought to be displaced within the country.

Annan, who begins his peace mission in Damascus on Saturday, has called for a negotiated political solution, but dissidents say there is no room for dialogue amid Assad's crackdown.

Rifts among big powers have blocked any UN action to resolve the crisis, with China and Russia firmly opposing any measure that might lead to Libya-style military intervention.

China, which dispatched an envoy to Syria this week, said on Friday it would send an assistant foreign minister to the Middle East and to France to discuss a way forward.

Beijing urged Annan to "push for all sides in Syria to end their violence and start the process of peace talks".

Russia, an old ally of Damascus and its main arms supplier, has defended Assad against his Western and Arab critics, twice joining China in vetoing UN resolutions on Syria.

"We shall not support any resolution that gives any basis for the use of force against Syria," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov tweeted late on Thursday.

Western powers have shied away from any such action. "The option of any military intervention is not on the table," French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said in Morocco on Friday.

France's Foreign Ministry also said Paris would not accept any UN Security Council resolution which would assign responsibility for the violence in Syria equally between the Syrian government and the opposition.

"There is no equivalence between the savage repression that Bashar Assad's clan has perpetuated for months and the legitimate desire of the Syrian people for the respect of their rights," said ministry spokesman Bernard Valero.

A Russian diplomat said Assad was battling al Qaeda-backed "terrorists" including at least 15,000 foreign fighters who would seize cities if government troops withdrew.

The Syrian opposition denies any al Qaeda role in a popular uprising against nearly five decades of Baathist rule.

Moscow could play a vital role in any diplomatic effort to ease Assad from power and spare Syria further bloodletting.

"If (Annan) can persuade Russia to back a transitional plan, the regime would be confronted with the choice of either agreeing to negotiate in good faith or facing near-total isolation through loss of a key ally," the Brussels-based International Crisis Group said in a paper this week.

Syrian security forces have killed well over 7,500 people since the anti-Assad uprising began a year ago, according to a UN estimate. The government said in December that "armed terrorists" had killed more than 2,000 soldiers and police.

Syrian deputy minister defects from Assad regime

Ma'an, 09/03/2012 12:57

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis
AMMAN (Reuters) --

Syrian Deputy Oil Minister Abdo Hussameldin has announced his defection on YouTube, becoming the first high-ranking civilian official to abandon President Bashar Assad since the uprising against his rule erupted a year ago.

"I Abdo Hussameldin, deputy oil and mineral wealth minister in Syria, announce my defection from the regime, resignation from my position and withdrawal from the Baath Party," Hussameldin said in the video, the authenticity of which could not be immediately confirmed.

"I join the revolution of this dignified people," he said in the video uploaded on Wednesday and seen early on Thursday.

He said he had been in government for 33 years but did not want to end his career "serving the crimes of this regime", adding: "I have preferred to do what is right although I know that this regime will burn my house and persecute my family."

Syrian security forces have killed more than 7,500 civilians during the crackdown on pro-democracy protests, according to the United Nations, and the outside world has proved powerless to halt the killing.

While saying very preliminary military planning was under way, US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Wednesday defended US caution in trying to end the violence, despite criticism from legislators who questioned how many people would have to die before the Obama administration used force.

UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos saw a scene of devastation and near desertion on Wednesday when she visited the Baba Amr district of the city of Homs that was shelled by the military for nearly a month after becoming a rebel holdout.

Hussameldin said: "I say to this regime: you have inflicted on those who you claim are your people a whole year of sorrow and sadness, denying them basic life and humanity and driving Syria to the edge of the abyss."

Assad appointed Hussameldin, 58, to his current position through a presidential decree in 2009. He said the country's economy was "near collapse". There was no mention of the defection on Syrian state media.

Wearing a suit and tie, Hussameldin looked relaxed as he looked directly into the camera in a tight head and shoulders shot, appearing to read from a prepared statement on his lap as he sat on a dark gray chair against a yellow background.

Opposition sources say the government, controlled by Assad's minority Alawite sect that has dominated power in Syria for the past five decades, has effectively stopped functioning in provinces that have been at the forefront of the uprising, such as Homs and the northwest province of Idlib.

But public defections have remained rare among the civilian branches of the state, despite thousands of the mostly Sunni soldiers and conscripts who make the bulk of the army deserting since the uprising broke out last March.

Devastation

Amos is hoping to secure access for humanitarian organizations, which have been barred from the zones of heaviest conflict.

Syria had initially failed to grant Amos access to the country but relented after Damascus's allies Russia and China joined the rest of the UN Security Council in a rare rebuke of Syria for not allowing her in.

"It was like a closed-down city and there were very few people around," Amanda Pitt, a spokeswoman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said of Amos's visit to Baba Amr on Wednesday, adding it "looked like it was devastated from the fighting and shelling".

Amos went in with a team of Syrian Arab Red Crescent aid workers, who entered Baba Amr for the first time in 10 days, before heading back to Damascus where she held talks with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem earlier in the day.

He told her Syria was trying to meet the needs of all citizens despite the burdens imposed by "unfair" Western and Arab sanctions, the state news agency SANA said.

A convoy from the International Committee of the Red Cross has been unable to enter Baba Amr since arriving in Homs on Friday, a day after the district fell to the Syrian military.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said delays in aid were unacceptable and called on Syria to respect a pledge last November to withdraw its forces, release political prisoners and allow peaceful protests.

"The regime's refusal to allow humanitarian workers to help feed the hungry, tend to the injured, bury the dead, marks a new low," Clinton said after meeting Poland's visiting foreign minister.

Clinton said she planned to meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Monday during a special UN meeting on the Arab Spring revolts which swept the Middle East last year and toppled four veteran leaders, including Libya's Muammar Gaddafi.

Russia, one of Assad's few remaining allies, has, with China, blocked UN Security Council resolutions calling for him to step aside. Its UN envoy on Wednesday accused Libya's new rulers of running a training center for Syrian rebels and arming the fighters in their battle to overthrow Assad.

"This is completely unacceptable ... This activity is undermining stability in the Middle East," said Vitaly Churkin, who also questioned whether "the export of revolution" was "turning into the export of terrorism".

Assad's government says the uprising is a campaign by foreign-backed Islamist insurgents that has killed 2,000 police and soldiers since the protests erupted.

Military options

US President Barack Obama said on Tuesday it was only a matter of time before Assad left office, but has shown no enthusiasm for US participation in an election-year military mission to force him out.

He said on Tuesday it was a mistake to think there was a simple solution to the year long crackdown on the Syrian opposition or that the United States could act unilaterally.

Panetta told the Senate Armed Services Committee the administration was still trying to forge a consensus on addressing the violence. "That makes the most sense. What doesn't make sense is to take unilateral action at this point."

He and General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the panel that, at Obama's request, the Pentagon had studied US military options in Syria, assessing issues such as potential missions and Syria's troop line-up.

Dempsey underscored the very basic nature of the planning.

"The commander's estimate process really looks at ... what are the potential missions, what is the enemy order of battle, what are the enemy's capabilities ... what are the troops available and how much time. So mission, enemy, terrain, troops and time. That's a commander's estimate," he said.

The world has found no way to halt a year of bloodshed since many Syrians rose against Assad in what has proved one of the longest and bloodiest Arab revolts against entrenched rulers.

At the United Nations, the five permanent Security Council members and Morocco met on Tuesday to discuss a US-drafted resolution urging an end to the Syrian crackdown and unhindered humanitarian access.

In another effort to stop the violence, former UN chief Kofi Annan plans his first visit to Damascus as joint envoy of the United Nations and the Arab League on Saturday.

Nonetheless, the violence has continued. Syrian activist groups said the army, after its onslaught on Homs, has begun to mass forces around rebel bastions in Idlib province, which borders Turkey.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the army had started to concentrate outside the towns of Saraqeb and Jabal al-Zawiya as well as Idlib city. Jabal al-Zawiya has been mostly in rebel hands in past months and would be difficult for the army to clear because of rugged mountainous terrain.

The Observatory said there were heavy clashes around Saraqeb on Wednesday night. Lebanese officials close to the Syrian government previously had told Reuters that Assad's aim was to crush the rebels in Homs and move on to Idlib.

Syrian media curbs make it hard to verify such reports.