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Rodrigo Abd / AP
Women and children take shelter from fierce fighting between the Free Syrian Army and government troops in Idlib, north Syria, on Saturday.
Updated 12:15 p.m. ET: BEIRUT -- U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan said it would be hard to reach a deal to halt bloodshed in Syria, but expressed optimism after meeting President Bashar al-Assad for a second day on Sunday.
"It's going to be tough. It's going to be difficult but we have to have hope," he told reporters in Damascus.
"I am optimistic for several reasons," Annan said, citing a general desire for peace in Syria. "The situation is so bad and so dangerous that all of us cannot afford to fail."
Khaled Al-Hariri / Reuters
U.N. envoy Kofi Annan, left, and Syria's Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem enter a restaurant to attend a working lunch in Damascus on Saturday.
The former United Nations chief, who is from Ghana, said: "I have urged the president to heed the African proverb which says: 'You cannot turn the wind, so turn the sail.' "
Annan, speaking before departing for Qatar, said he had left "concrete proposals" with Assad for a way out of a conflict that has cost thousands of lives.
"You have to start by stopping the killings and the misery and the abuses that are going on today, and then give time (for a) political settlement," he said.
There was no immediate word from Syrian officials on the outcome of the talks, but Assad told Annan on Saturday that "terrorists" spreading chaos and instability were blocking any political solution, according to the state news agency SANA.
But it said the 46-year-old president had also told Annan he would help in "any honest effort to find a solution".
Syrians involved in a popular uprising against Assad say there can be no meaningful dialogue with a leader who has inflicted such violence and suffering on his own people.
"Him (Assad) stepping down is definitely a first condition of any discussion or negotiation," Bassma Kodmani of the opposition Syrian National Council told the BBC on Sunday.
The United Nations says Assad's forces have killed more than 7,500 people in a year-long crackdown on protesters and insurgents. Authorities say rebels have killed 2,000 soldiers.
Annan's mission has coincided with a Syrian military offensive against opposition strongholds in the northwest.
Reuters
Activists said at least four people were killed in the town of Idlib on Sunday after troops and tanks moved in a day earlier. Three soldiers and a civilian were also killed in fighting in the village of Janoudiya in Idlib province on Sunday morning, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
State news agency SANA said "terrorists" shot dead a former boxing champion, Ghiath Tayfour, in the city of Aleppo and also killed a leading Baath Party member in Homs province.
The Observatory said 39 civilians, including 25 in Idlib province, were killed on Saturday, along with 39 rebels and 20 government soldiers, giving an overall death toll of 98.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who met Annan in Cairo on Friday, told the Arab League his country was "not protecting any regime," but did not believe the Syrian crisis could be blamed on one side alone.
He called for a ceasefire and humanitarian aid access, but Qatar and Saudi Arabia sharply criticized Moscow's stance.
Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani, who has led calls for Assad to be isolated and for Syrian rebels to be armed, said a ceasefire was not enough. Syrian leaders must be held to account and political prisoners freed, he declared.
Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal said shortcomings in the U.N. Security Council, where Russia and China have twice vetoed resolutions on Syria, had allowed the killing to go on.
Their position, he said, "gave the Syrian regime a license to extend its brutal practices against the Syrian people."
Saudi Arabia and Qatar, which are both ruled by autocrats and espouse a strict version of Sunni Islam, are improbable champions of democracy in Syria. Riyadh has an interest in seeing Assad fall because this could weaken its Shi'ite regional rival Iran, which has been allied with Syria since 1980.
Syria opposition chief rejects UN peace talks
International rifts have paralyzed action on Syria, with Russia and China opposing Western and Arab calls for Assad, who inherited power from his father nearly 12 years ago, to quit.
The United States has drafted a fresh U.N. Security Council resolution, but Washington and Paris have said they are not optimistic it will be accepted.
Despite their differences, Lavrov and Arab ministers said they had agreed on the need for an end to violence in Syria.
They also called for unbiased monitoring of events there, opposition to foreign intervention, delivery of humanitarian aid and support for Annan's peace efforts.
But the exiled opposition Syrian National Council ruled out talks while Assad is in power.
"Negotiations can never take place between the victim and torturer: Assad and his entourage must step down as a condition before starting any serious negotiations," it said.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will meet Lavrov in New York on Monday when the Security Council holds a special meeting on Arab revolts, with Syria likely to be in focus.
Syrian forces have been building up for days around Idlib, the capital of a hilly, agricultural province along the Syria-Turkey border that has been a hotbed of protests against Assad's regime.
Saturday morning, troops blasted Idlib for hours with dozens of tank shells as the forces moved to encircle the town, an Associated Press team in Idlib reported.
Families fled their homes, carrying blankets and a few other meager belongings. Others huddled in homes.
'I join the revolution': 1st senior Assad official defects
The Idlib operation raised fears that Assad is set to launch an all-out offensive in Idlib like the one that captured captured part of Homs in the south.
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Assad refuses to talk to U.N. Envoy. I can hear the drums rolling now, good bye Assad, hello, demorcracy, or something like that...
yep, something like that or Iraq or Afghanistan or Korea or Vietnam ......
How many places likes of you will do war drum beatings?
You people are no where to be seen in Afghanistan or Iraq.
Some start drum beats when Saudis and oil companies direct!
Then Bushes, McCains and their Saudi bosses are no where around!
Wow, annan's blunt talks, obama's harsh letters, they really have a lot of impact on things, don't they?
Democracy is never the goal or the outcome.
The time for negotiation has passed, tell Assad he has 10 days to cease fire and pull the military out of cities or face an indictment on war crimes.............Don't punish the Syrian people with sanctions, put it all on Assads' shoulders and make him a war criminal with a $100 million bounty on his head.
Those drums are saying you go first and come back in a month or so if you're still alive and then tell us about it.
Why does not the UN and company worry about Yemen, Somalia, Afghanistan and Pakistan where they are badly needed?
At least, Syria has stability, where this corrupt and cheap on sale Annan can talk to Assad!
How much Saudis, oil companies and lobbyists are paying these US politicians doing drum beatings, UN and their gangs, human rights groups and other regular Saudi dance troopers?
Hello folks, when will we discard our Imperialistic mindset? We’ve caused enough trouble around the world. If you can't see that we are the instigators in most of the world's wars and displacement of millions of people who are fleeing our aggression, than you are in denial and are not paying attention. If you don’t think we have been in Syria covertly arming the rebels you are in denial and forgetting about Libya. We need to stay out of other country’s civil disputes. I hope we aren’t going to go against the United Nations vote earlier this year and unilaterally go into Syria under the pretext that we need to stop the violence like we did in Libya. General Wesley Clark has stated that a Syria invasion has been pre-planned for quite awhile.
General Wesley Clark: "America will take out 7 countries in 5 years"
According to Former NATO supreme allied commander, former presidential candidate and 4 star US General Wesley Clark that they had received a memo that America is going to take out 7 countries in the Middle East starting with Iraq, Libya, Syria Lebanon Sudan and Somalia, seeing what's going on today in Libya but also in Syria where violent protests are ongoing, it is amazing how these things that were planned years ago are being achieved in front of our eyes.
Why is it other countries feel like they have to defend their territory? Could it be that they know we have no problem invading their sovereignty just as we have done to countless other countries. Since World War II, 90% of the casualties of war are unarmed civilians. 1/3 of them children. Our victims have done nothing to us. From Palestine to Afghanistan to Iraq to Somalia to wherever our next target may be, their murders are not collateral damage, they are the nature of modern warfare. They don't hate us because of our freedoms. They hate us because every day we are funding and committing crimes against humanity. The so-called "war on terror" is a cover for our military aggression to gain control of the resources of western Asia.
This is sending the poor of this country to kill the poor of those Muslim countries. This is trading blood for oil. This is genocide, and to most of the world, we are the terrorists. In these times, remaining silent on our responsibility to the world and its future is criminal. And in light of our complicity in the supreme crimes against humanity in Iraq and Afghanistan, and ongoing violations of the U.N. Charter in International Law, how dare any American criticize the actions of legitimate resistance to illegal occupation.
We are going into Syria for a couple of reasons (yes we are in Syria with our Drones at a minimum), one, we are trying to dislodge Russia from there because they have a foothold in the Middle East via two military bases in Latakia and Tartus in Syria. Two, Syria is a strong ally of Iran. If we invade Syria we take out a strong ally and maybe incite Iran to assist giving the U.S. the reason they are looking for to attack Iran. The ultimate goal is to surround, weaken and to invade Iran. The petro dollar is at stake as other countries are switching to other forms of currency in buying Iran’s oil.
Since the Russian war in 1828, Iran has never attacked another country. We on the other hand have attacked to name a few:
Libya, Iran, Nicaragua, Haiti, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Angola, Mozambique, Honduras, Chile, Congo, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Somalia, Angola, Columbia, Peru, Panama, Yemen, Pakistan, Grenada, Mexico, etc..
Wake up people we are being herded down the Military Industrial Complex gauntlet again to another false war to enrich the greedy Corporations and distract the American people. Did we not learn anything from the Iraq war where we have killed well over 1 million Iraqi people, lost thousands of American lives and God knows how many hundreds of billions of dollars?
Who do you support, humanity or the greedy elite?
Many of our soldiers don't fight for America, they fight for their lives and their buddies beside them, because we put them in a war zone. They're not defending our freedoms, they're laying the foundation for permanent military bases to defend the freedoms of Exxon Mobil and British Petroleum.
Face it we're Imperialists pure and simple. The elite look down on all of us as expendable chattel.
"Military men are dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns for foreign policy" Henry Kissinger
I’m not asking you to hate war but to love peace. War, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing!
1. The officer that ordered the burning of the Korans should have been washed out of boot camp. Those people are extremely sensitive about their religion and everyone knows it. We don't have to be perfect but we should be smarter than the illiterate uneducated 7th century goat lovers we are bring democracy too.
2. We should courts martial him. If he is found guilty then he should get the death penalty. Killing innocent women and children is a war crime. The military of the United States executed 160 soldiers and other members of the armed forces between 1942 and 1961 (these figures do not include German prisoners of war, war criminals and saboteurs executed by military authorities between 1942 and 1951). There have been no military executions since 1961 although the death penalty is still a possible punishment for several crimes under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Of the total, 106 were executed for murder (including 21 involving rape), 53 for rape and one for desertion (Eddie Slovik).
The death penalty by the U.S. military was reintroduced by the executive order of President Ronald Reagan in 1984.
On July 28, 2008, President George W. Bush approved the execution of United States Army Private Ronald A. Gray, who had been convicted in April 1988 of multiple murders and rapes. A month later, Secretary ofthe Army Pete Geren set an execution date of December 10, 2008 and ordered that Gray be put to death by lethal injection at the Federal Correctional Complex, Terre Haute. The military publicly released Gray's execution date on November 20, 2008. On November 26, however, Gray was granted a stay of execution. He has not yet been executed as of 2012
Time of the Dictator is at an end. There is no room for the likes of them in today's society. As with the others, he will be found hiding in a hole somewhere and will probably not even see the inside of a court to face a trial. When will they ever learn?
America is a dictatorship. We just have more than one leader.
your point being......
Brenda, you have to understand that Saddam and Gadafi were allies of U.S. and that the reason they ended up in a hole because we love to stab our allies in the back in the end. But, Assad is backed by Russia and China. I don't see him being in a hole anytime soon.
Yeah, no room for them, except in America. We're freeing everybody else while helping to fasten our own shackles, how ironic!
I do hope the Syrian people find some relief from the fragility and horror that has become their lives.
It is obvious that several of you do not know the meaning of Dictator. You must be a Republican, most of them are stupid.
Exactly right. Don't you just love this "spread democracy across the globe" garbage? We're NOT even a democracy ourselves, yet send our money and precious lives to fight for the freedoms of primitive barbarians who have NO effing clue what to do with a democracy or even what it is.
Meanwhile, more and more of our liberties are being flushed down the toilet, while our OWN Country is circling the drain.
Hope people can be fair when they look at world events.
If that is the case, then Saudi, Kuwaiti, UAE and other oil rich Sunni seventh century desert mindset despots, barbaric and bigoted rulers should be on the top of the list!
Assad comes at the bottom of the list here. His only fault is that he is non-Sunni ruler!
Yep phenomenal, russia and china tend to be honest, fair and well liked, while we are deceitful, unfair and hated.
They don't call us the ugly american for nothing.
IWONDER- America lies just as much as the rest of them
Maybe they should get a room and talk about it.
Yes DexhunterZ, The dictators are all the damn corporate persons empower by the Supreme Court puppets
I disagree Ellis. I believe it is congress who are our real dictators with access to money to fund all agencies and the military and these dictators take bribes.
Brenda: Isn't it the Republicans who love to topple dictators to spread "democracy" over the Middle East?
Republicans do like to manufacture reasons to go into another country and make war. We saw that with Iraq. They won't spend any money on their own people in need, but they will spend us into debt for a chance to shoot some weapons and kill anything they can. They even shoot each other, Dick Cheney proved that. He goes out hunting, but couldn't find any animals to shoot so he shoots one of his hunting buddies.
In the very near future, Damascus will once again play a major role in human events. The prophet Isaiah provides us with God’s commentary on a future conflict between Damascus and Israel, and in so doing, he reveals certain prophecies which have been partially fulfilled in the past. However, the ultimate fulfillment of Isaiah 17 remains in the future. The current existence of Damascus, which will one day cease to be a city, as well as the historical absence of the coalition of nations prophesied to attack Israel and be destroyed by God, is proof that Isaiah 17 prophesies events yet future.
EVERYTHING ISAIAH SAID THAT GOD TOLD HIM WOULD COME TRUE, HAS.... WITH STILL SOME
FUTURE THINGS TO COME TRUE; ONE INCLUDES DAMASCUS......
I like facts not someones "opinion" on facts or someones "take" on the truth....
Jesus is the ONLY way and it sure is fun !!! Im a Jesus freak, bible thump-er ( ex-navy/ American) who lives in a very terrible place on this earth right now....loving and caring for the needy. ...No I will not take my religious opinions elsewhere.....cuz you need to hear it.... ISAIAH 17....READ IT :) coming to a news channel near you !!
I commend you for your service sir!!!
However, I disagree, It is not the second coming of Jesus we should be expecting but WWIII, and it will start from the middle east a stone left un-turned during WWII. Lets pray that our English Bible was not mis-interpreted by our beloved king Henry VIII and that the fires of hell does not mean literal fires from nuclear bombs.
We have thousands of copies of the original text in Hebrew ( Septuagint) and Greek. We have found a few copier errors. that are very obvious.......Sooooooo we do NOT need to worry about King Henry or anyone else's translation. Case solved....
Im looking forward to the rapture, that is before Jesus' coming. Read your bible and understand yourself so Christ can use your life. We ( His children ) are not appointed to (His) wrath....No ww lll for us ( His children ). Are you His child?
Please don't try to match/compete with mad Islamic religious fanatics.
One religious madness by itself is too much to take for now!
It is fun that they let the Delusional post here. It is good for a laugh
*click* *changes channel*
You do realize that the Bible is just a fairy tale, right? That stuff isn't actually going to happen.
And you Call yourself a Christian. ISAIAH 17 is the Old Testament. The New testament is what Christ told us to Follow. You and look you Born Again"s should really learn true Religion.
And where in the new testament does it say Damascus will be destroyed.
Oh, puhleeeeeeze!
Zealots v's zealots, all of them believing in their own story books. It really is tragic. The only way that the so called prophecies come to fruition is because "believers" take the steps to make them happen. I daresay that religion has killed far more people than any force on this planet. Quoting archaic texts only strengthens the argument against the zealots.
We talk while innocents die. We'll talk until there is none left alive to talk about. Sometimes talk is the answer, other times the answer is action. It seems that the problem isn't mostly the Syrian government, but the one man that inherited it from his father. Cut off the head and the snake dies.
True that the snake dies when you cut off its head, and then another snake arises.
Once the UN decides to take action their lap-dog obama will once agine send our military into action without even seeking congressional approval as he did in Libya.
Panetta announced on the floor of the Senate that he takes his orders from the UN and he doesn't need Congressional approval.
I don't remember that part in the Constitution.
The 1973 War Powers Resolution allows the the president to sustain hostilities for a period of 60 days at which point approval from congress is needed.
You guys make running the most powerful nation on the planet sound like a no-brainer. It seems to me that dynamics between the various nations involved in US foreign policy might be a little less cut and dried than you make it out to be.
That being said, I think we need a break from all the middle eastern and south-asian nuttiness of late.
Hal-2824511 - I think the point is that this president does not use that act as it was intended. He uses it as an abuse of power to suit his political ambitions and power hungary ways.
No, I understood the point they were trying to make. On the other hand if the president actually needed to get the aproval of this congress to defend our country from an impending attack, with their pledges of non-cooperation, we would all be toast.
I know there are a lot of these people mourning the loss of Gaddafi but buck up, Assad is still alive and well.
Ever wonder why it was such an imperative to intervene in Libya whilst the Syrians are allowed to slaughter their citizens endlessly? Gaddafii nationalized the foreign owned oil facilities which is an unforgivable sin to western capitalists. Assad still plays ball according to western capitalist rules, so he gets to stay. It's simply economics. No real concern for human rights. Be very suspicious of conflict in which the justification is "human rights", as there is almost certainly a corporate agenda behind it.
Until the American people develop the cynicism to ask themselves honestly who benefits from any given conflict, we will find ourselves sucked into conflict after conflict, with the karmic toll becoming greater each time.
Iran is a thorn in whose side. The USA who let pakistan,india and north Korea get nukes. Or Israel , the only country that has nukes but never signed the nonproliferation treaty? Who are the terrorists? Who ignores all un resolutions against it? IRAN has oil , they do not want to play by the Banking cartels rules. The terrorist Israeli nation will start the next war and their puppet government of the USA will come to their aid to rid the world of the bad Iranians.
You have to listen to the nazis to understand how the next world war will start.
"TRUTH is the enemy of the STATE"
Paul Joseph Goebbels was a German politician and Reich Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany
Wikileaks is not the enemy,anonymous is not the enemy.
"Of course the people don't want war.
But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy.
All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger.
Herman Goering
Nuremberg Trials
Iran MIGHT BE DEVELOPING NUKES. So we must attack (Pre-crime)
Iraq's WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION ,we gave up looking on that lie years ago. 5000 dead americans and hundreds of thousands dead Iraqis over a LIE. WAKE up they want to do it again!
Let the Syrians have their Civil War it is none of our business. Stop trying to rule the world USSA our arrogance is not what the world needs. Our once great political system is bought and paid for and attacking Iran just proves it.
You can't GIVE Democracy to anyone! The PEOPLE have to take it!
Having said that, the "Democracy" the Middle Eastern countries want isn't OUR vision of "White Anglo Saxon" Democracy, at all. Their vision of Democracy is being under the rule of their own Theocracy which is predominately Islamic! They will NEVER sit still for our kind of Democracy!
The above is CLEARLY being played out in Iraq where they have three (3) different views of Islamic Theocracy. We "GAVE" them Democracy, our vision of it, and it is NOT what they want, as a country! At least, as far as the ruling religious leaders want!
With the singular exception of MEMORIZING the Koran, the majority of these populations are uneducated, illiterate "mud hut" dwellers who take their life direction from their RELIGIOUS leaders! If "this" Imam says to strap on a bomb and blow yourself up in a market place in the name of Allah, they do it without hesitation! If "that" Imam says to stone some woman to death because someone saw her without her veil, they do it!
Short of a total ethnic cleansing, we will not/cannot prevail in societies like this! At best, all we can do is help "the lesser of evils" to be in control of these countries and they will turn on us in a heartbeat! We represent ALL that they have been raised to HATE! Their Koran/Religion/Imams tell them to kill or convert us to their vision of Islam! NO EXCEPTION!
They preach it in their places of worship here in the USA and OUR Democracy allows it to go unchecked! There is NO SUCH THING as a Moderate follower of Islam! The Koran tells them it is OKAY to lie to Infidels in their quest to convert us but, failing that, OUR DEATH is their ultimate goal!
assad leave now!
and it will be a huge blow to iran
The true authority, The Bible says.....
Isaiah 17:1
The burden against Damascus. "Behold, Damascus will cease from [being] a city, And it will be a ruinous heap.
Your God is pretty slow, I can predict anything if I have 4 or 5 thousand years to get it done.
Religious people are such idiots
It over Syria will fall the question is who
will to govern.
Syria the great is now a slave of sins
slave of sins to ali babba.
bashar is an idiot. just like obama and clinton. and koffi anan .those are 4 people the world could do without,
the un is a world class joke, nothing but a dumping ground for political friends that are owed favors/jobs but are too stupid to put in the front window
Wow Brenda your last remark was right on . Just look at Mathew Martin.
Good job
I'll bet the UN leaders were suprised to see Syria's military continue to operate even when the diversion the UN attempted to make so that they could arm the rebels didn't work. It's Syria's civil war let them settle it, don't complain that they are killing innocent people. The US military will kill millions of innocent citizens during our next civil war. The next civil war will pit the 1% and the US military against the 99% and maybe this time we can have a true demoncracy not a dictatorship by the wealth of the 1%. The republican party will no longer exist just as Hilters political party no longer exists.
I hope you are wrong but it may be inevitable
Sounds like the government should be hung for murder and war crimes.
So for the Iraq war the US and Nato to kill over 1 million Iraqis that is OK. This is what crimes against humanity is what the US and Nato doing killing Millions of people is the BIGGEST CRIME IN THE WORLD.
We would have got involved in this if russia and china wouldnt have threaten us,
What makes you think "we aren't in this"
I get it, If Israel kills them they are militants, If Assad kills them they are freedom fighters.
OK, mister Annon, your supposed to be the leader of the UN maybe even the world now. But thousands are dieing while you go to dinner with a tyrant? Fix it now..send in 1 plane /helicopter and level Assad's home during the night. Barbaric you say? How many thousands are dieing while your playing around? One handful of dead people and its fixed, then a new democracy or new family that can be more easily controlled. 6 or so against thousands...whos the barbarian now?
Haha, as I remember, kruschev shot and killed beria, himself. Why should someone else do your job for you?
Cease fire has to be both sides.
All in the name of religion.... PFFFFFFF stupid is as stupid does....
No religion in this fight, power is all that is up. America is supplying the Rebels and Assad is trying to save his country.
Sunnis are taking over. Shiites have 4 countries now and are about to loose one. Good. Sunnis are slightly less primitive than Shiites. I'm cheering for Al Qaida in this fight. Both sides are our enemies so send lots and lots of ammo. But no guns. and no bombs.
Send them a million body bags and wish them good luck at filling them up.
Leroy-"I'm cheering for Al Qaida in this fight."
You must not be American,or under 11 years old. Americans that lived through 9/11 don't "cheer" for Al Qaeda.
Uncle Bob - America had Al Qaeda for an ally in Libya, they helped us defeat Kadiffi. We created Al Qaeda, just because they blew up a few buildings doesn't mean we quit dealing with them
arm the drones let them fly
I remember a big todo about America's involvement in regime change a number of years ago. It looks like America has rejoined the regime change anthem of the 60's-70's. Not change for the better; just change for change sake. Keeping the world a boiling pot. Why is the administration supporting the te rrorist groups that it condemns? Lincoln is a hero for putting down a revolution and costing 250,000 lives but Assad is a criminal?