(ANSAmed) - BEIRUT, JUNE 28 - The UN envoy Kofi Annan is
reported to be working towards a transition government featuring
members of the current regime and of the opposition, in a bid to
save Syria from a whirlpool of violence.
No fewer than 100 people died today, according to opposition activists, while battle continues to rage between government forces and military deserters. Elsewhere,a car-bomb exploded outside the central court in Damascus, injuring three people and setting 20 cars alight.
Annan's new plan will be discussed in Geneva on Saturday by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (US, Russia, China, France and UK), the EU and a host of Arab states.
However, Russia, the main sponsor of the Damascus regime, and the Syrian National Council (SNC), the biggest opposition platform, have already said that they will not be easily convinced.
Annan intends to out forward the idea of a national unity government in Geneva, in an attempt to put an end to the bloodbath in the country. The new executive, though, would not include figures "whose inclusion could harm the transition", a diplomat explained. The reference to President Bashar al-Assad appears crystal clear.
Serghei Lavrov, Russia's Foreign Minister, said that he is in favour of changes that might lead to "national agreement", but warned that Moscow "will not support the imposing of an external solution". Assad's fate, he added, must be decided "by the Syrian people".
The SNC, meanwhile, has listed the removal of Assad as a condition for taking part in "any political project". This will be the subject of talks in Paris tomorrow between the French Foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, and the new president of the SNC, Abdel Baset Saida.
In the meantime, the president of NATO's military committee, General Knud Bartels, has said that "there will be no military intervention by the Alliance" until "all political instruments have been used".
The Israeli intelligence website Debka, which was quoted by the Turkish press, says that Turkey's Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, insisted to the US President Barack Obama that there should be a military offensive against Syria "like in Libya", after a Turkish F4 aircraft was shot down on Friday. The US President, though, is said to have dismissed the request.
(ANSAmed).
No fewer than 100 people died today, according to opposition activists, while battle continues to rage between government forces and military deserters. Elsewhere,a car-bomb exploded outside the central court in Damascus, injuring three people and setting 20 cars alight.
Annan's new plan will be discussed in Geneva on Saturday by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (US, Russia, China, France and UK), the EU and a host of Arab states.
However, Russia, the main sponsor of the Damascus regime, and the Syrian National Council (SNC), the biggest opposition platform, have already said that they will not be easily convinced.
Annan intends to out forward the idea of a national unity government in Geneva, in an attempt to put an end to the bloodbath in the country. The new executive, though, would not include figures "whose inclusion could harm the transition", a diplomat explained. The reference to President Bashar al-Assad appears crystal clear.
Serghei Lavrov, Russia's Foreign Minister, said that he is in favour of changes that might lead to "national agreement", but warned that Moscow "will not support the imposing of an external solution". Assad's fate, he added, must be decided "by the Syrian people".
The SNC, meanwhile, has listed the removal of Assad as a condition for taking part in "any political project". This will be the subject of talks in Paris tomorrow between the French Foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, and the new president of the SNC, Abdel Baset Saida.
In the meantime, the president of NATO's military committee, General Knud Bartels, has said that "there will be no military intervention by the Alliance" until "all political instruments have been used".
The Israeli intelligence website Debka, which was quoted by the Turkish press, says that Turkey's Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, insisted to the US President Barack Obama that there should be a military offensive against Syria "like in Libya", after a Turkish F4 aircraft was shot down on Friday. The US President, though, is said to have dismissed the request.
(ANSAmed).
