Syria discusses peace plan with Russia

Syrian president Bashar al-Assad yesterday sent a senior diplomat to Moscow yesterday to discuss proposals by international envoy Lakhdar Brahimi to end the conflict convulsing his country, Syrian and Lebanese sources said.

Brahimi, who saw Assad on Monday and who is planning to hold a series of meetings with Syrian officials and dissidents in Damascus this week, is trying to broker a peaceful transfer of power.

More than 44,000 Syrians have been killed in a revolt against four decades of Assad family rule, a conflict that began with peaceful protests but which has descended into civil war.

Meanwhile, the commander of Syria’s military police has defected from Assad’s government and reportedly fled to Turkey. Lieutenant General Abulaziz al-Shalal is one of the highest-ranking officials to join the uprising against the Syrian regime.

The army had failed to protect Syrians and turned into “gangs of murder”, the general said in statement.

The announcement came amid reports of a deadly government strike in the province of Raqqa.

Past peace efforts have floundered, with world powers divided over what has become an increasingly sectarian struggle between mostly Sunni Muslim rebels and Assad’s security forces, drawn primarily from his Shi’ite-rooted Alawite minority.

Deputy foreign minister Faisal Makdad flew to Moscow to discuss the details of the talks with Brahimi, according to a Syrian security source.

A Lebanese official said Makdad had been sent to seek Russian advice on a possible agreement. He said Syrian officials were upbeat after talks with Brahimi, the UN-Arab League envoy, who met foreign minister Walid Moualem on Tuesday.

Russia — which has given Assad diplomatic and military aid to help him weather the uprising — has said it is not protecting him, but has fiercely criticised any foreign backing for rebels and, with China, has blocked UN Security Council action on Syria.

A Russian foreign ministry source said Makdad and an aide would meet foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and Mikhail Bogdanov, the Kremlin’s special envoy for Middle East affairs, today.

On Saturday, Lavrov said Syria’s civil war had reached a stalemate, saying international efforts to get Assad to quit would fail.

Bogdanov had earlier acknowledged that Syrian rebels were gaining ground and might win.

Given the scale of the bloodshed and destruction, Assad’s opponents insist the Syrian president must go.

Moaz Alkhatib, the head of the internationally-recognised Syrian National Coalition opposition, has criticised any notion of a transitional government in which Assad would stay on as a figurehead president stripped of real powers.

Comments on Alkhatib’s Facebook page on Monday suggested the opposition believed this was one of Brahimi’s ideas.

“The government and its president cannot stay in power, with or without their powers,” Alkhatib wrote, saying his coalition had told Brahimi it rejected any such solution.

While Brahimi was working to bridge the vast gaps between Assad and his foes, Syrian army shelling killed about 20 people in Raqqa, a video posted by opposition campaigners showed.

Rebels relaunched their assault on the Wadi Deif military base in the province of Idlib. The British-based Observatory said a rebel commander was among several people killed in yesterday’s fighting.