Homs under siege as Russia opens talks
Sergey Lavrov’s visit comes days after Syrian allies Russia and China vetoed a Western- and Arab-backed resolution at UN headquarters that would have condemned the Assad regime’s crackdown on dissent and called on him to transfer some of his powers to his deputy.
The Syrian government had rejected the Arab plan as intervention in Syria’s internal affairs.
Thousands of Syrians cheered Lavrov as he arrived in Damascus.
“Necessary reforms must be implemented in order to address legitimate demands of the people striving for a better life,” Lavrov later told Assad, Russian state ITAR- Tass agency reported.
Lavrov also said Assad is ready for dialogue with the opposition.
“It’s clear that efforts to stop the violence should be accompanied by the beginning of dialogue among the political forces,” he said.
“Today we received confirmation of the readiness of the president of Syria for this work.”
Repeated efforts by the Arab League and Russia to broker talks have been rejected by the Syrian opposition, which refuses to hold talks amid the crackdown and says it will accept nothing less than the regime’s downfall.
The violence, meanwhile, continued with regime forces keeping up an assault on Homs, Syria’s third-largest city. Activists reported that at least 15 people, including a 15-year-old boy, were killed in violence across the country.
More than 5,400 people have been killed in Syria since the uprising began in March, the UN said early last month. Hundreds more are believed to have been killed since then, but the UN says chaos in the country has made it impossible to cross-check the figures.
Syria has blocked access to trouble spots and prevented independent reporting, making it nearly impossible to verify accounts from either side.
Diplomatic efforts to end the bloodshed suffered a setback over the weekend with the veto of a UN Security Council resolution by Russia and China.
Several European countries, including France and Italy, announced that they had recalled their ambassadors to Syria, a day after the US closed its embassy in Damascus. The diplomatic moves were a clear message that Western powers no longer see any point in engaging with Assad and now will seek to bolster Syria’s opposition.
Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, also called the Security Council veto a “fiasco” and said his country cannot remain silent about the massacres in Syria and will continue to support the Arab League efforts.
“We will launch a new initiative with countries that stand by the Syrian people instead of the regime,” Erdogan said.
US secretary of state Hillary Clinton has called for “friends of democratic Syria” to unite and rally against Assad’s regime,previewing the possible formation of a group of like-minded nations to co-ordinate assistance to the Syrian opposition from outside the UN.
Homs was the site of the deadliest assault of the uprising on Saturday, when more than 200 people were killed in an overnight bombardment hours before the UN vote.
An activist said tanks were closing in on the rebel-held Baba Amr district in Homs, tightening a months-long siege of the area.
“The shelling has been going on for days and the siege is getting worse. We are short of everything including food and medical supplies,” said an activist who identified himself only by his first name, Omar. “People here have not slept for days.”
The British-based Observatory for Human Rights said troops were attempting to storm the Baba Amr, Khaldiyeh and Bayada districts and said at least nine civilians were killed in the shelling. It also reported that a 15-year-old boy was shot dead by security forces who stormed the town of Houleh, in Homs province.
The Observatory and the Local Co-ordination Committees activist network also reported heavy machine gun fire in the rebel-controlled Damascus suburb Zabadani, saying five people were killed.
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