Homs under siege as Russia opens talks

Syrian forces renewed their assault on the flashpoint city of Homs as Russia’s foreign minister stressed the need for reform during talks in Damascus with President Bashar Assad about Syria’s escalating violence.

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.