Annan's call for dialogue offers no hope for Syrians, says SNC leader
President of the most prominent opposition group Syrian National Council (SNC) Burhan Ghalioun Friday rejected a call by Kofi Annan, UN and Arab League's special envoy for Syria, for dialogue with the government saying it offered no hope for Syrians being "massacred every day".
Stressing that any solution to the crisis must be accompanied by military pressure on President Bashar al-Assad, Ghalioun criticised Annan for "avoiding" any references to the government's use of extreme military force to crush year-long protests.
During a visit to Cairo Thursday, Annan had told reporters that his mission during the visit to Syria on Saturday would be to start a "political process" to resolve the conflict in the country.
The former UN chief had said that "militarisation" of the conflict would only make it worse, as has been witnessed in other countries in the region, so his aim was to achieve a political settlement between protesters and Assad's regime through dialogue.
Annan mooted a political settlement which is "Syrian-led and Syrian-owned".
Expressing disappointment with Annan's views, Ghalioun said, "These kind of comments are disappointing and do not give a lot of hope for people in Syria being massacred every day. ..It feels like we are watching the same movie being repeated over and over again."
Ahead of Annan's visit, Syrian forces Friday killed 31 demonstrators staging protests Homs province, which has been virtually under siege for last several days.
"Heavy clashes were raging at the outskirts of the Rastan and al-Kussair areas between members of the Free Syrian Army and the government troops," said Abu Imad, a Syrian activist based in northern Lebanon.
The Local Co-ordination Committees, an opposition group documenting violence across Syria, said troops were bombarding areas in Karam al-Zeitoun, al-Khalidiyeh and al-Bayada in Homs.
The army reportedly has sent reinforcements to the northwestern province of Idlib, where activists have been fearing an assault similar to the one that devastated the Baba Amr neighbourhood of Homs.
The UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos, who was allowed a brief visit to Baba Amr earlier this week, said though said the Syrian government had agreed to a joint mission to assess the country's humanitarian need, there is no response so far to her proposal for delivery of aid to the area.
In a report from Moscow, official Syrian news agency SANA said Russia's has opposed a U.S. draft resolution on Syria submitted to the UN Security Council calling it unbalanced.
"We can't approve the draft resolution in its current form because it isn't balanced," said Russian Deputy Foreign Minister, Gennady Gatilov, in a statement on Friday.
Russia, Gatilov clarified has heard from different sources that the Western countries want the timing of endorsing this draft resolution to coincide with the ministerial session of the Security Council due on March 12.
Accordingly, the Russian official stressed that his country does not consider it suitable to link adopting the resolution to certain dates, because the time factor is not essential for Russia.
What is rather more important, Gatilov stated is reaching a realistic text that is devoid of double meaning and aimed at making a firmly-established settlement.
In the continuing violence in Syria for nearly a year, over 7,500 civilians have been killed, according to UN estimates.
Source: Middle East News.Net
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