Russia’s foreign minister said after talks in Damascus yesterday that President Bashar al-Assad was “fully committed” to ending the bloodshed in Syria even as regime tanks pounded the city of Homs for a fourth straight day.
The humanitarian situation is dire. No one can move around
Sergei Lavrov said he had had a “very useful” meeting with Mr Assad and that Moscow was eager to work towards a solution based on the peace proposals of the Arab League. Mr Lavrov added that Syria was ready to see an enlarged Arab League mission in the country.
The pan-Arab bloc deployed an observer mission to Syria in December to oversee a November plan to end bloodshed that has now lasted almost 11 months. But the mission was suspended in late January after its chief said the violence had reached a new pitch of intensity despite its presence.
The 22-member League has since put forward a new plan for Mr Assad to hand his powers to Vice President Faruq al-Shara and a national unity government to oversee the preparation of democratic elections.
Mr Shara, a veteran regime diplomat with a career that stretches back to the rule of Mr Assad’s late father President Hafez al-Assad, attended yesterday’s talks with Mr Lavrov.
Moscow had previously criticised foreign calls for Mr Assad to step down but in an interview with Australian TV last week Mr Lavrov insisted: “We never said that President Assad remaining in power is the solution to the crisis.”
Lavrov said Syria was pressing ahead with the reform programme Mr Assad promised and would soon announce the timetable for a referendum on a new Constitution to replace the current one which enshrines the dominant role of his Baath party. Mr Lavrov said Mr Assad was also ready for dialogue with all parties.
But on the ground, there was no let-up in the regime’s crackdown on protest hubs around the country, particularly the central city of Homs, Syria’s third-largest.
In fact tanks and artillery pounded Homs for a fourth straight day, killing at least 15 civilians, according to activists.
Abu Rami, an activist in the city reached by AFP by telephone from Beirut, said shelling and rocket fire had continued through the night and into the day.
“There are about four blasts every five minutes,” he said. “The humanitarian situation is dire. No one can move around.”
At least nine civilians and four soldiers were killed as the army attempted to storm the Khaldiyeh neighbourhood of the city, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. One of the slain civilians was a woman.
Another six civilians were killed in the Baba Amr district, the Britain-based watchdog said, adding that a further seven civilians and four security service agents were killed elsewhere in the country.
Shooting thought to be from outgunned rebels fighters echoed across Baba Amr in response to the artillery barrage from besieging troops. The opposition Syrian National Council joined an appeal to businessmen across the Arab world to give money to the rebel Free Syrian Army to help rectify the imbalance in firepower.
US Senator John McCain, the Republican candidate in the 2008 election won by President Barack Obama, said it was time for Washington to think about arming the rebels.
“We should start considering all options, including arming the opposition. The blood-letting has got to stop,” he said.
Human rights groups say more than 6,000 people have been killed since the outbreak of the revolt.
Moscow sparked Western anger last week by joining Beijing in using its veto at the Security Council to block UN action against the Damascus regime, in what US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called a “travesty.”
A day after the US closed its Damascus embassy, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain joined Britain and Belgium on Tuesday in recalling their ambassadors to Syria for consultations. Turkey, which shared Western anger over the Russian and Chinese vetoes, said it would launch a “new initiative” with like-minded countries which “stand by the Syrian people, not the regime.” The six Arab states of the Gulf announced they had decided to expel Syria’s envoys and withdraw their own from Damascus.