Assad Visiting the City of Homs

"LandepNews"

Assad Visiting the City of Homs

Syrian troops on Wednesday continued their crackdown on the restive cities and towns in the south and north of Syria, in spite of the announcement made by U.N.-Arab League special envoy Kofi Annan that Syrian president Bashar al-Assad had accepted his six-point plan to stop violence in the country.
The plan was presented to Bashar al-Assad during Annan’s visits to Syria, and refer to ending the conflict by both sides, the government and the rebels, pulling out the heavy weaponry and the tanks from the residential districts of the cities, the releasing of the political detainees and the offering of the medical care to those who needed it.
Bashar al-Assad accepted the plan because it did not demand his resignation like all the other international attempts to put pressure on him had. The same reason compelled the Russian foreign ministry to announce that Russia would back the plan, in a surprising move, considering that Russia had opposed all kind of interference with the business of Syria, and went as far as to veto two UN Security Council resolutions on Syria.
Kofi Anaan met with the Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and convinced him that the plan he proposes is the most beneficial for the current situation. The Russian official said that there was a need for the violence to be stopped and joined the call for Assad to allow a two-hour daily ceasefire for the medical aid to be offered to the injured.
Sergei Lavrov reiterated the idea that some mistakes were made in the past by the Syrian regime, and the outgoing president Dmitry Medvedev warned that no matter how the plan is going to be executed the Syrian people must be in the end the one to decide its own destiny, especially the transition to democracy.
Annan visited China on Tuesday and presented the plan to the Chinese leaders, convincing them to support it. He is said to plan to travel to Tehran to convince the Iranian authorities as well.
Russia demanded that the opposition be involved in the dialogue with the government, while Iran urged that the matter be dealt with patiently. On Tuesday, Iranian president Ahmadinejad praised the Syrian regime for the way it handled the situation, and reiterated his conviction that the entire unrest was set up by the western countries to increase the Israeli stance in the region.
Western powers manifested less enthusiasm toward the acceptance by Damascus of the plan. The European leaders demanded that action be taken instead of sweet talk, and some of the Syrian opposition groups said that Assad was just buying time to put down the revolt and was only using Annan the way he had used other leaders who came to bring the same message to him.
The Arab League convened in Baghdad on Tuesday in a two-day summit which is expected to be dominated by the Syrian problem. During the first day, the economy ministers spoke of the crisis in this country, and the foreign ministers approached the theme on Wednesday.
The Arab League demanded the regime to end crackdown, but it is not expected to demand the resignation of the president of Syria, allowing Annan’s plan to work. The United States, which is backing the plan put forward by Kofi Annan, manifested its skepticism that the transition in Syria could be done with Assad as president.
Soon after the announcement made by Kofi Annan, U.S. State Secretary Hillary Clinton said that Assad’s sincerity and seriousness would be judged according to his decisions to end conflict. She demanded of him to order the troops to return to base.
It is said at the UN headquarters that Kofi Annan may want to boost a U.N. observer mission to assess the implementation of the ceasefire. A U.N. official said that when the time comes a resolution would be passed in the UNSC on the observer mission. He said that the composition of the mission would include Arab nationals and non-Arab observers, though expressed concern that Syria would permit Arab League people to participate.
While agreeing to support Annan’s plan, Russia manifested reluctance toward the meeting of the “Friends of Syria,” which is scheduled for Sunday to be held in Istanbul. Russia says that the meeting is a cover for a unilateral foreign interference.
The Syrian National Council, convened in Istanbul, demanded that more support be offered to the rebels fighting the regime. The lack of unity was manifested on this occasion too, prompting Hillary Clinton to demand that the Syrian opposition to act united.

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