(Reuters) – U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan meets President Bashar al-Assad today to press for a political solution to Syria’s year-long uprising and bloody crackdown in which thousands of people have been killed.
Annan’s talks in Damascus come a day after activists said Assad’s forces killed at least 68 people as they sought to extend control over the rebellious city of Homs and crush armed opposition in the northern province of Idlib.
Arab foreign ministers were also due to hold talks in Cairo with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Russia and China vetoed a U.N. draft resolution last month which would have backed an Arab League plan calling for Assad to step aside.
Activists said tank rounds and mortar bombs crashed into opposition districts in the rebellious central city of Homs, killing 20 people, while 24 were killed in the northern province of Idlib and more deaths were reported elsewhere.
“Thirty tanks entered my neighborhood at seven this morning and they are using their cannons to fire on houses,” said Karam Abu Rabea, a resident in Homs’s Karm al-Zeitoun neighborhood.
One focus of demonstrations was the anniversary of Kurdish unrest in Syria in 2004 when about 30 people were killed.
Many thousands of Kurds demonstrated in northeastern cities, YouTube footage showed, some carrying banners that read “Save the Syrian people”. Other clips showed hundreds of protesters in the Assali district of Damascus, burning posters of Assad’s father Hafez al-Assad and chanting “God damn your soul, Hafez”.
Street protests have swelled every Friday after Muslim prayers since the anti-Assad revolt erupted a year ago, despite violent repression by the military and loyalist militias.
Decisive victory has eluded both sides in an increasingly bloody struggle that appears to be sliding into civil war.
“IMMEDIATE CEASEFIRE”
The former U.N. chief Annan, now the U.N.-Arab League envoy, discussed his mission with current U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the head of the Arab League, Nabil Elaraby.
“I have very strongly urged Kofi Annan to ensure that there must be an immediate ceasefire,” Ban told reporters in New York after the conference call. After a ceasefire, he said, there should be “inclusive political solutions” found through dialogue.
Annan also plans to meet the Syrian opposition before leaving the country on Sunday. He has called for a political solution, but dissidents say there is no room for dialogue amid Assad’s crackdown.
