Syria backs talks to end conflict
2012-12-31 16:02
Damascus - Syria's government on Monday welcomed any initiative for talks to
end bloodshed in the country, after UN-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said
he had a peace plan acceptable to all sides.
The Damascus regime's latest stand, expressed by Prime Minister Wael
al-Halaqi, came amid a flurry of diplomatic activity led by Brahimi to find
ways to end the 21-month conflict.
"The government is working to support the national reconciliation
project and will respond to any regional or international initiative that would
solve the current crisis through dialogue and peaceful means and prevent
foreign intervention in Syria's internal affairs," Halaqi told parliament.
Halaqi emphasised the revolt against the regime of President Bashar
al-Assad, which has cost an estimated 45 000 lives, must be resolved only by
the Syrian people, "without external pressures or decrees".
The country, he said, was "moving toward a historic moment when it will
declare victory over its enemies, with the goal of positioning Syria to build a
new world order that promotes national sovereignty and the concept of
international law".
Halaqi's remarks came after Brahimi said the Syrian conflict was worsening
"by the day".
Ceasefire plan
Speaking after talks in Russia, the veteran Algerian troubleshooter said on Sunday
he had crafted a ceasefire plan "that could be adopted by the
international community".
"I have discussed this plan with Russia and Syria... I think this
proposal could be adopted by the international community," Brahimi said,
without revealing any details.
"There is a proposal for a political solution based on the Geneva
declaration foreseeing a ceasefire, forming a government with complete
prerogatives and a plan for parliamentary and presidential elections," he
said, referring to a peace initiative world powers agreed to in June.
That plan was rejected by Syria's opposition, which insists Assad must
depart before any national dialogue can take place.
Russia and China have so far vetoed three UN Security Council draft
resolutions seeking to force Assad's hand with the threat of sanctions.
Escalating violence
The violence in Syria, meanwhile, escalated with activists reporting finding
of 30 tortured bodies in the northern Damascus suburb of Barzeh.
"Thirty bodies were found in the Barzeh district. They bore signs of
torture and have so far not been identified," said the Syrian Observatory
for Human Rights, which relies on medics and activists on the ground in
compiling its tolls.
The Syrian Revolution General Commission, a grassroots network of
anti-regime activists, gave a higher estimate of 50 bodies, saying "their
heads were cut and disfigured to the point that it was no longer possible to
identify" them.
These reports could not be verified independently because of restrictions on
international media.
The Observatory said at least 160 people were killed across Syria on Sunday,
including 78 civilians.
Offensive unleashed
On Sunday, regime forces had unleashed a fierce offensive in the central
city of Homs after overrunning a key neighbourhood a day earlier.
The Observatory said after seizing the Deir Baalbeh district in fighting
which left dozens dead, regime forces fired off barrages of rockets into
surrounding rebel-held neighbourhoods on Sunday.
Troops also bombarded the nearby opposition stronghold of Rastan.
A video released by the Syrian Revolution General Commission showed the
bodies of nine male victims from Deir Baalbeh lying on the ground, their faces
bloody and mutilated.
On Sunday, Moscow dispatched a third naval vessel to the eastern
Mediterranean in readiness for a possible evacuation of Russian nationals, many
of them women who married Syrian men during the Cold War years of close
relations.
The Novocherkassk landing ship is expected to dock in Tartus in the first 10
days of the new year, Russian news agencies reported.
Russia has been accused of using the base to supply Assad's government with
secret military shipments supplementing the official weapons sales that Moscow
has made to Damascus since Soviet times.
