Moscow and Washington aired their differences on the Syrian conflict yesterday as peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi headed to Cairo on his first trip to the region and as violence claimed more lives across Syria.
Troops shelled several districts of the northern city of Aleppo and clashed with rebels as other parts of the country were shelled in a new day of violence that killed at least 54 people, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.
Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said the overall death toll from 18 months of violence in Syria has now risen to more than 27,000.
A bomb targeting a bus carrying civilians and soldiers killed four people and wounded dozens in central Syria, the Britain-based group said, as the opposition announced that a vocal anti-regime film-maker had been killed in Aleppo.
Brahimi, who has said he was “scared” of the mission awaiting him, is due in Cairo for talks today at the headquarters of the Arab League and is finalising plans for a visit to Damascus, according to his spokesman.
The veteran troubleshooter, who succeeds ex-UN and Arab League envoy Kofi Annan who quit in frustration at UN Security Council divisions on Syria, has described the bloodshed as “staggering” and called the destruction “catastrophic”.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said yesterday that a new Security Council resolution on Syria would be pointless if it had “no teeth,” because President Bashar al-Assad would ignore it.
Speaking in Russia, Clinton said she was willing to work with Moscow on a new resolution but warned Washington would step up support to end Assad’s regime if the measure did not carry consequences.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Saturday after talks with Clinton that he hoped to seek Security Council approval for a peace plan agreed in June in Geneva that called for a ceasefire and political transition.
Clinton said she hoped for progress but was “realistic” that Washington and Moscow had differences on Syria.
If those differences persist, “then we will work with like-minded states to support a Syrian opposition to hasten the day when Assad falls,” she said.
Washington has said it is providing non-lethal assistance to the opposition in Syria, whose regime has been a Moscow ally since the Cold War.
Brahimi has been seeking guarantees that he will get a proper meeting with Assad before he goes to Damascus, diplomats said.
On the ground, troops and rebels fought pitched battles in Aleppo as each side tried to gain more territory in Syria’s battered economic hub, activists and the Observatory said.
At least two people were killed when mortar rounds struck a residential building in Hanano, the Observatory said.