| Syria to attend peace conference, says Russia | | |
Moscow: The Syrian government has agreed to participate in a peace conference initiated by the United States and Russia, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Friday.
“We received confirmation from Damascus that the Syrian Government is, in principle, ready to take part,” spokesman Alexander Lukashevich was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.
Mr. Lukashevich said that while a number of Opposition groups have confirmed their participation, their disunity is a major obstacle. A date for the conference has not been set because of the disparity among Syria’s Opposition, he added.
“As long as there is no clarity about who will speak with which authority for the Opposition, we cannot take demands seriously to form a concrete date.” Russia is Syria’s key ally and main arms supplier.
The Syrian National Coalition Opposition group was expected to decide on its participation in the proposed parley at a meeting in the Turkish city of Istanbul.
The Opposition has repeatedly demanded that President Bashar al-Assad step down in any political solution to the Syrian crisis. In Syria, Opposition rebels launched a counter-attack on government troops in the strategic town of al-Kussair near the border with Lebanon, activists said.
REBELS RETRIEVE THREE POSTS
“The revolutionary fighters managed in the counter-attack to retrieve three posts that were captured by the regime forces and their allies from Hezbollah,” said Hadi al-Abdullah, a spokesman for the Local Coordination Committees, a network of Opposition activists in Syria. Al-Kussair lies near a major highway connecting the Syrian capital, Damascus, with the Government-controlled cities of Tartous and Latakia.
The rebels, fighting to oust al-Assad, use the area to smuggle weapons from Lebanon.
Al-Assad’s troops, backed by fighters with the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah, have battled in the past few days to regain control of the town from rebels. At least two rebel fighters were killed on Friday in clashes with al-Assad’s forces and Hezbollah militiamen in al-Kussair, reported the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
SHELLING BY REGIME TROOPS
The Britain-based Opposition organisation also said regime troops were shelling the town.
Al-Assad told a visiting Tunisian delegation in Damascus on Thursday that he was determined to crush the rebellion, SANA reported. Syria’s crisis started with peaceful protests in March 2011 before developing into a full-blown war. |
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