NEW YORK — Almost a year after the Iraq war began, Ahmed Sharif, then just 6 years old, had a strange feeling as he walked home from school on an empty Baghdad street.

"It was quite scary to walk alone on that street which was completely deserted, apart from a group of American soldiers who were pointing their guns at me," said the now 15-year-old Sharif.

Then, a bomb exploded, tearing off his right arm and blinding him.

But Sharif became one of a few victims of the now decade-long war who was sent to the United States for medical care, with the help of American-based aid organizations. He is one of still fewer who has started a new life here.

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New life in New York
Sharif found his way to the United States after his elder brother, Saad, registered him with a U.S. military treatment center in Baghdad in early 2004. From there his case was referred to the New York-based Global Medical Relief Fund, an nonprofit organization that provides treatment for young victims of war, natural disaster or illness.

Global Medical Relief Fund, based in New York, together with the Los Angeles-based Assyrian Medical Society, have brought about 50 war-affected Iraqi children to America for medical care.

"I heard about his case and I immediately flew to bring him to the U.S.," said Elissa Montanti, the 59-year-old founder of the Global Medical Relief fund. "I just felt his darkness, but he has a sense of humor, and that hope inspired me to help him."

Since its inception in 1997, the fund has helped 160 children from 22 different countries receive medical treatment. Afterwards some have resettled permanently in the United States, Canada or Europe, while others have returned to their home countries.

"We don't want to help more than eight to nine kids [in a year] because we want to treat our kids like family, not numbers," said Montanti whose organization is mainly funded through private donors.

The Iraq war had a devastating effect on Iraqi civilians. The Iraqi government estimates that 239,133 Iraqi nationals were injured from 2004 through 2011 due to "terrorism and acts of violence." But the severe shortage of physicians in Iraq means that many victims of the war have not gotten adequate medical attention.

While 34,000 physicians were registered with the Iraqi Medical Association in the 1990s, by 2008 there were only around 16,000 for the country of 31 million, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Due to his extreme disabilities, Sharif relocated to New York full-time and Montanti became his legal guardian so he could stay in the country.

He now goes to school to study braille, the language for the blind, among other classes. While Montati takes care of his basic needs, he lives with other kids receiving medical treatment in a four-bedroom house funded by the charity.

His best friend is his housemate Ngawang Tsestin, 15, who lost both arms in an accident in his native Tibet. Sharif is never expected to see again but, that has not stopped him from playing the piano and singing.

And he gets help from Tsestin.

"I am his hands and he is my eyes," says Sharif. "Whenever we watch a movie, he narrates it to me. And he helps me with walking on the road so that I don't run into people."

'Gave me hope'
On the West coast, the Los Angeles-based Assyrian Medical Society has helped 300 children from different countries, many from Iraq, receive medical treatment.

Samer Butrus was 12-year-old when he lost his left leg and was severely injured in his right leg after a bomb exploded on his family’s farm in northern Iraq. After waiting more than four years for medical help, Butrus's dad connected with a local representative of the society and he was sent to the United States for care in 2008.

"It's hard to live away from my family and friends, but if I were in Iraq, my life there would have been limited to a wheelchair," Butrus said in a telephone interview.

Now 21 years old, he is now studying business and aspires to be an accountant in Windsor, Canada, where he lives with his mother after being granted asylum there.

"I was in search of hope after my injury and that's exactly what the society gave me. They gave me hope of a better life," said Butrus. "Whatever happened is behind me, my leg won’t come back, every day is a new day now."

Related links: 

10 years later, Iraq's impact still pervades Republic Party 

Iraq War 10 Years Later: Where Are They Now?

Iraq, 10 years on: Did invasion bring 'hope and progress' to millions as Bush vowed? 

 

 

News Analysis 

Nearly two years after the Syrian uprising began, Secretary of State John Kerry announced the U.S. has for the first time agreed to directly supply Syria's opposition with $60 million in non-lethal aid. But, while this money is needed, it is unlikely to immediately change anything on the ground. 

Speaking under the condition of anonymity, supporters of the opposition working to topple Syrian President Bashar al Assad said they were privately disappointed that the U.S. didn't extend more assistance, specifically weapons, and that the EU has not yet lifted an arms embargo.

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But the concern among U.S. officials is that extremist elements are increasingly filling in the vacuum in areas where the regime has been pushed back and the opposition is struggling to govern. There are worries weapons could end up in the wrong hands.

According to Salman Sheikh, director of the Brookings Doha Center, Kerry’s announcement is "unlikely to change the calculation of the Syrian regime's biggest allies — Russia, Iran and Hezbollah." They will not take the U.S. decision as a serious threat to the regime's survival. 

Sheikh, who has advocated for arming the rebels, says $60 million is an insignificant amount for an opposition that is now expected to operate like a government in some parts of Syria. The salaries of civil servants who are expected to maintain law and order, as well as the country’s justice, sanitation and education services, can cost close to $500 million a month. And Sheikh estimates humanitarian assistance to meet the needs of the people displaced and suffering both inside and outside is about $40 million a day.

The U.S. aid package, which will assist the Syrian Opposition Coalition in 'liberated' areas, is aimed at helping the fledgling coalition expand the delivery of basic goods and services, including security, sanitation and educational services. The United States also will send technical advisers to support opposition staff in Egypt and work with the movement's military arm to provide non-lethal support to the Free Syrian Army, including things such as military rations and medical supplies to tend to sick and wounded fighters.

Foreign ministers from Saudi Arabia and Qatar described Thursday's announcement as a transformational point in the Syrian conflict. And British Foreign Secretary William Hague said his government would be making an announcement on additional aid to the opposition next week. 

However, Yaser Tabbara, the spokesperson for the Coalition and its legal advisor, said Kerry’s Rome meeting with the head of the Syrian National Coalition, Moaz al Khatib, gave reason for "cautious" optimism.

The Syrian opposition is under increasing pressure to deliver a solution but doing so requires substantial "investment in the infrastructure of the armed opposition," Tabbara said. "A political solution without tipping the balance of power on the ground is not viable."

The Syrian opposition had promised to form an interim government by March 2 but that has been postponed for logistical reasons. 

Meanwhile, Syria's official government news agency described Kerry's announcement as a paradox, saying it expressed "Washington's desire to find means to speed up the political process, which aims at ending the crisis in Syria and its desire to help and back the armed terrorist groups in the country."

Related:

U.S. to send rations, medical supplies to Syrian rebels, but not weapons

 

In a policy shift, the United States on Thursday will announce plans to channel aid directly to selected groups of the Syrian opposition rather than through non-governmental agencies, senior White House officials told NBC News.

The aid plan, being forged with European allies, will still not include weapons, despite the calls of a growing number of American senators — but the definition of "non-lethal" aid will be more broadly defined, the officials said, noting that details of the plan were still being finalized.

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Secretary of State John Kerry, who is in Paris on his first foreign trip in his new position, said earlier that Washington is looking for new ways to help rebels fighting the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad and speed up political transition in the country.

"We are examining and developing ways to accelerate the transition the Syrian people seek and deserve," Kerry said during a news conference with French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius.

The Washington Post has reported that the administration was planning to start sending non-lethal equipment like body armor and armed vehicles to Assad's foes.

Among the items likely to be included in the direct aid to rebels are meals and medical kits, The Associated Press reported.

Kerry was expected to announce the new contributions at the Rome conference, in addition to tens of millions of dollars intended for rule of law and governance programs.

For its part, the Syrian opposition is planning to demand "qualitative military support" at talks with major powers in Rome this week, a leading figure in movement to oust Assad told Reuters on Wednesday.

"We ask our friends to give us every backing to achieve gains on the ground and help reach a political solution from a position of strength, not weakness," said Riad Seif of the Syrian National Coalition umbrella group said a day before a Friends of Syria conference in the Italian capital.

"We expect to receive political, humanitarian and qualitative military support,” he said.

The Friends of Syria group is composed mainly of Western powers, Gulf Arab states opposed to the Iranian-backed Assad, and Turkey.

The West and Syria's neighbors have been looking for a solution to the two-year-old civil war in Syria that has claimed around 70,000 lives and sent 860,000 refugees fleeing abroad. The conflict pitting the largely Sunni rebels against the Alawite-dominated Assad government threatens to destabilize countries in the region, most notably Lebanon.

In Paris, Kerry said the United States wanted the Syrian opposition's advice on how to accelerate a political solution to help halt the bloodshed and protect the interests of the Syrian people.

"We want (the Syrian opposition's) advice on how we can accelerate the prospects of a political solution because that is what we believe is the best path to peace, the best way to protect the interest of the Syrian people," he said ahead of meetings with the opposition on Thursday.

"As I have said, that may require us to change President al-Assad's current calculation. He needs to know that he can't shoot his way out of this. So we need to convince him of that and I think the opposition needs more help in order to be able to do that. And we are working together to have a united position," Kerry added. 

But Iraq's prime minister warned that a victory for the rebels in Syria would create new problems, by creating a haven for extremists and worsening sectarian tensions in the Middle East.

In an interview with the AP, Nouri al-Maliki stopped shy of expressing support for the Assad regime.

The prime minister's remarks reflect fears by many Shiite Muslims in Iraq and elsewhere that Sunni Muslims would come to dominate Syria should Assad be toppled.

"If the world does not agree to support a peaceful solution through dialogue ... then I see no light at the end of the tunnel," al-Maliki said.

"Neither the opposition nor the regime can finish each other off," he continued. "The most dangerous thing in this process is that if the opposition is victorious, there will be a civil war in Lebanon, divisions in Jordan and a sectarian war in Iraq."

As the bloody Syrian conflict wears on, there is a growing number of U.S. legislators urging greater action, including some type of military support for the rebels.

Sen. Roger Wicker, a member of the Armed Services Committee, appearing on NBC's Andrea Mitchell Reports on Wednesday.

"I hope our new secretary of state will listen carefully to the more responsible of the Syrian opposition," said Wicker, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Asked if that meant the United States should provide weapons, he said: "I think there are ways and means for us to see that is done. I think Secretary of State Kerry is going to be listening to those proposals, and I think if he does what he's being told at the highest levels of the Pentagon, we may be moving, yes, to military aid for the responsible opposition groups."

He agreed that there is a risk to those weapons falling into the hands of radical extremists infiltrating the opposition movement, but said.

"There's no question it's a concern, but this has gone on too long. The Assad regime needs to fall."

Andrea Mitchell is NBC News chief foreign affairs correspondent. Catherine Chomiak is an NBC News producer. Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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BEIJING — China has quelled speculation its controversial "one-child" policy is to be scrapped, instead announcing Wednesday that family planning laws to curb the birth rate will remain.

"The policy should be a long-term one and its primary goal is to keep a low birthrate," Wang Xia, minister in charge of the National Population and Family Planning Commission, said.

The pronouncement comes after months of speculation that the decades-old restriction would be abandoned.

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In October, a Chinese government think tank urged the policy be relaxed to allow two children for every family in the country by 2015.

"I’m surprised," said Professor Shaun Breslin, associate fellow at U.K. think tank, Chatham House. "Almost everything we had heard in recent months pointed towards a relaxation of one-child."

The 1979 law prohibits about one-third of China’s 1.3 billion citizens from having a second child. The policy is officially backed up by fines, but campaigners say more than one million forced abortions are carried out every year.

It has slowed the spectacular growth of the country’s population, preventing an estimated 400 million births over three decades.

In a related statement on Wednesday, the family planning commission said China’s current low birthrate "is not stable because, with the exception of some developed cities, the fertility level in most of China's regions will rise if the basic state policy of family planning is abolished."

"Therefore it is necessary to stick to the basic state policy of family planning to stabilize the current low fertility level," it added.

Breslin said China’s looming demographic crisis — a huge elderly population supported by a relatively tiny younger generation — highlighted social problems such as the need for greater universal healthcare.

"For most Chinese people the current system works fine if you have a sore throat, but a knee operation could use up all your savings," he said. "That means many are keen to ensure they have a male child in order to ensure there is enough income in the family."

He added that Wednesday’s announcement did not mean China’s new leadership was eschewing economic or social reforms. "It can take a year or two for any new leadership in China to introduce change," he said.

Professor Hu Xingdou, of the Beijing Institute of Technology, told the South China Morning Post it would be difficult for the government to abolish the one-child policy overnight.

"China still needs a family-planning policy due to our vast population and lack of cropland, as well as the relative deficiency of per capita resources,” he said.

The one-child rule is mainly enforced in urban areas.

Wang also announced an expansion of rural healthcare provision for pregnant women, and said efforts "should also be made to rectify the imbalance in gender ratio."

She also said a "complete working system" would be established to "in light of the great numbers of young migrant workers flocking to the cities for jobs."

Related stories:

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Growing calls in China to change the one-child policy

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CANBERRA, Australia -- Small South Pacific island nations are cashing in on new aid rivalry between China and the United States as both powers vie to boost their influence in a vast region of mostly micro-nations.

The recent visit to the tiny Cook Islands by United States Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton highlighted the growing significance of the region as the United States continues its "pivot" to the Asia-Pacific, analysts said.

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The Clinton visit also underlined a growing Chinese influence as it steps up its aid programs to enhance its standing among the smaller nations.

"It is very significant. It just confirms that the Pacific is becoming of greater importance, not less," Stephen Howes, professor of development policy at the Australian National University, told Reuters.

'Big enough for all of us': Clinton says US can work with China in Pacific

China's aid program is difficult to measure, although a report by the Lowy Institute think tank in 2011 found China's aid was worth around $200 million a year, with a heavy reliance on soft loans -- a loan with a below-market interest rate -- to finance public works.

In recent years, China's aid and soft loans have helped build sports stadiums in Papua New Guinea and the Cook Islands, a swimming complex in Samoa, a new port in Tonga, as well as extensions to the Royal Palace in the Tongan capital Nuku'alofa.

China has also funded a new police station and court buildings in the Cook Islands capital Raratonga, and boosted aid to Fiji as western nations shunned its military government after the 2006 military coup.

'Cooperation, not competition'
During her visit to the Cook Islands, Clinton announced an extra $32 million in U.S. aid programs for the Pacific, ensuring the U.S. maintains its role as the second-largest aid donor to the region behind Australia.

Much at stake for US as tensions rise in troubled China Seas

Clinton also said the United States could work with China in the Pacific, and played down any new China-U.S. rivalry.

The United States spends about $300 million a year on Pacific nations, including round $100 million a year on military assistance, compared to around $1.2 billion a year from Australia.

China says it is merely seeking to help the poor and remote nations in the region develop.

"We are willing to make a contribution, along with all other parties, to help with sustainable development in the South Pacific. We are looking for cooperation, not competition," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told reporters.

In the past, China's aid flows into the Pacific have been designed to head off potential spending from Taiwan and to try to prevent tiny nations giving official recognition to Taiwan, which China considers a breakaway province to be united with the mainland eventually, and by force if necessary.

For more coverage on China, visit NBC's Behind The Wall

But in the past three years, China and Taiwan have agreed to stop trying to poach Pacific nations to their side.

"At the moment, it is more to do with the United States than it is with Taiwan," Lowy Institute South Pacific analyst Annemaree O'Keeffe told Reuters.

She said China's aid programs had undergone significant changes as it recognised deeper problems with its traditional monument projects, where China might construct a major building but then leave a country struggling to maintain it.

"It can work against them. You can have a wonderful sports stadium, but if it starts to fall down, you'll remember that the Chinese built it," O'Keeffe said.

She said China had begun to work more closely with other countries and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development on the effectiveness of its aid programs.

China seeking positive image?
That was evident at the Pacific Islands Forum in Raratonga, where China and New Zealand announced a joint aid program to improve water supplies in the Cook Islands. New Zealand will provide $12 million and China will provide a $26 million loan.

As Clinton preps for Asia-Pacific tour, is North Korea capable of reform?

The ANU's Howes said China's growing aid influence in the Pacific was simply a reflection of its rising global influence and as more countries, including Indonesia and Brazil, start to spend more on aid.

"It is a global phenomenon of China reaching out," he said. "More broadly, it is China asserting itself as a global power and expanding its aid and investment from state-owned companies."

He said China was keen to project a positive image, which is why China's aid focused on high-profile projects, although China could do more to ensure its aid programs were transparent.

The downside, however, is that countries might struggle to repay China's soft loans, leaving them worse off in the long run, he said.

Australia, a close U.S. ally which counts China as its top trading partner, has welcomed China's interest in the Pacific, and said China's aid program was no cause for concern.

"I don't think Chinese influence in the South Pacific is anything to alarm us," Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr told reporters in Perth in last week.

"The fact is, China's rise to being a great power -- China's economic growth -- will see that it develops relations around the world more vigorously than it ever has in the past and we Australians have just got to get used to it.

"The Chinese will learn that a heavy-handed aid program doesn't get them the kudos that a better targeted more professional aid program does."

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Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said late Tuesday it was halting most aid programs in Pakistan due to fears over deteriorating security – a concern underscored early Wednesday when 19 soldiers and militants were killed in a clash at a military checkpoint.

The independent global aid agency, which rarely suspends its operations even in war zones, has worked in the country since the end of British colonial rule in 1947 - but was shaken by the discovery in April of the beheaded body of British doctor Khalil Rasjed Dale, one of its health workers.

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It said it would carry on working in the country "but on a reduced scale," having already suspended operations in three of Pakistan's four provinces in May pending a security assessment.

Paul Castella, head of the ICRC delegation in Islamabad, said in a statement: "We are ready to continue helping people in need, such as the wounded and the physically disabled, provided working conditions for our staff are adequate. In the coming weeks, we will coordinate with the Pakistani authorities the resumption of health services as conditions permit, in particular the re-opening of our surgical hospital in Peshawar, which closed down after the murder of our colleague."

Aid workers become targets as Pakistan faces new humanitarian crisis

The statement said the ICRC's partnership with the Pakistan Red Crescent Society and support for physical rehabilitation services, notably in Peshawar and Muzaffarabad, will continue, as will the assistance provided by the ICRC for families seeking to restore and maintain contact with Pakistanis detained abroad.

The killing of an ICRC official in Quetta had seriously worried staff members of the organization about their security in Pakistan, particularly in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. Dale, who converted to Islam, ran a health program in Quetta when he was kidnapped on January 5 while going home from work.

His body was found on April 29 with a note that said the ICRC’s failure to pay ransom was the reason for his killing.

Red Cross doctor found beheaded in Pakistan

Dale was the third foreigner beheaded in Pakistan, after Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in 2002 and Polish geologist Piotr Stanczak in 2009.

The Pakistan Taliban have been fighting a bloody insurgency against the Pakistani state since the group was formed 2007, Reuters reported. It is close to al-Qaida and it claimed credit for a failed car bomb attempt in New York's Times Square in May 2010. 

Ex-ambassador: US, Pakistan should 'divorce'

Meanwhile at least 19 people - nine Pakistan Army soldiers and 10 militants – were killed and 16 others injured in clashes between the Pakistani security forces and militants at the remote mountainous Ghatsar area of Tiarza, South Waziristan, on Wednesday.

Senior military officials said dozens of militants had attacked military checkpoints located in the mountains on Tuesday night that led to heavy fighting in the area.

Pakistani Christians live in fear after girl's blasphemy arrest

"The militants attacked our checkpoints with heavy weapons last night,” said a senior Pakistani military official based in Wana, the main administrative city of South Waziristan tribal region.

“The soldiers retaliated and engaged the militants. Fighting is still going on in which nine soldiers lost their lives. The security forces had killed 10 militants and injured several others in the overnight clashes.”

South Waziristan, which is one of Pakistan's seven autonomous tribal regions, is mostly controlled by Pakistani militants, Afghan Taliban and al-Qaeda operatives making it difficult for the government and its armed forces to carry out their responsibilities.

Reuters contributed to this report.

 

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Updated at 2:01 p.m. ET: The International Committee of the Red Cross said on Sunday it now considers the conflict in Syria a civil war, meaning international humanitarian law applies throughout the country. The declaration came as opposition fighters battled Syrian government forces in Damascus.

The Geneva-based group's assessment is an important reference that helps parties in a conflict determine how much and what type of force they can or cannot use.

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ICRC spokesman Hicham Hassan said Sunday that the humanitarian law now applies wherever hostilities are taking place in Syria, where fighting has spread beyond the hotspots of Idlib, Homs and Hama.

International humanitarian law grants parties to a conflict the right to use appropriate force to achieve their aims. But attacks on civilians and abuse or killing of detainees can constitute war crimes.

Syria denied U.N. claims that government forces used heavy weapons during a military operation that has brought widespread international condemnation against President Bashar Assad's regime.

Syrian Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi said the violence Thursday was not a massacre, but a military operation targeting armed fighters who had taken control of the village of Tremseh.

"What happened wasn't an attack on civilians," Makdissi told reporters in Damascus. "What has been said about the use of heavy weapons is baseless."

But the United Nations has already implicated Assad's forces in the assault. The head of the U.N. observer mission said Friday that monitors stationed near Tremseh saw the army using heavy weaponry and attack helicopters.

On Saturday, U.N. observers investigating the killings found pools of blood in homes and spent bullets, mortars and artillery shells, adding details to the emerging picture of what anti-regime activists have called one of the deadliest events of Syria's uprising. The observers were expected to return to Tremseh on Sunday.

Dozens of people have already been buried in a mass grave, and activists are still struggling to determine the total number of people killed in what they say was a bombardment by government tanks and helicopters on Thursday.

Some of the emerging details suggested that, rather than the outright shelling of civilians that the opposition has depicted, the violence in Tremseh may have been a lopsided fight between the army pursuing the opposition and activists and locals trying to defend the village. Nearly all of the dead are men, including dozens of armed rebels. The U.N. observers said the assault appeared to target specific homes of army defectors or opposition figures.

Running tolls ranged from around 100 to 152, including dozens of bodies buried in neighboring villages or burned beyond recognition. The activists expected the number to rise since hundreds of residents remain unaccounted for, and locals believe bodies remained in nearby fields or were dumped into the Orontes River.

Independent verification of the events is nearly impossible in Syria, one of the Middle East's strictest police states, which bars most media from working in the country. The observers are in the country as part of an all but mordant peace plan by U.N. special envoy Kofi Annan, who has been trying for months to negotiate a solution to Syria's crisis.

In Damascus on Sunday, numerous residents contacted by Reuters said they could hear loud explosions, persistent gunfire and sirens wailing. Thick black smoke was visible above the Damascus skyline in live internet video links.

"I can't believe it, it sounds incredibly close. I hear shooting and other stuff, like blasts. I can hear the sounds of ambulances rushing past. I am so afraid. People may die tonight," said a resident in a district close to the fighting, contacted by telephone.

Activist Samir al-Shami, who spoke to Reuters by Skype from Damascus, said the fighting was under way in the al-Tadamon district in the capital's south, after a night of sustained battles in the nearby Hajar al-Aswad district.

"There is the sound of heavy gunfire. And there is smoke rising from the area. There are already some wounded and residents are trying to flee the area," he said, using Skype to show live video images of smoke visible over the skyline.

"There are also armored vehicles heading towards the southern part of the neighborhood," he said.

Like others contacted by Reuters, he described it as the most intense fighting he had heard in the capital.

"This area has had a lot of fighting ... The area is kind of a slum. The people who live there are poor. There's a lot of people and a lot of grassy areas around it so it's easy for rebels to sneak in and out," he said.

An explosion hit a security forces bus in Damascus on Sunday and wounded several people, activists said. Residents said they heard a powerful blast, followed by the sirens of ambulances rushing toward Damascus's southern ring road near the neighborhood of Midan.

Meanwhile, the Iranian foreign minister was quoted as saying that Iran is ready to host talks between the Syrian government and opposition groups, but members of the opposition quickly rejected the offer.

The statement by Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi appeared to suggest a possible shift in the Iranian leadership's approach. Iran has consistently supported Assad's efforts to suppress the 17-month-long uprising.

Tehran has repeatedly accused Western and regional powers of meddling in Syria's internal affairs through backing extremist militant groups.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran is ready to sit down with the Syrian opposition and invite them to Iran," Salehi was quoted as saying by the Iranian Students' News Agency. "We are ready to facilitate and provide the conditions for talks between the opposition and the government."

Samir Nashir, an executive board member of the exile Syrian National Council, turned down the offer.

"We will not participate in any meetings or talks with the regime as long as Assad is in power. Assad does not need talks, he needs to go to the International Criminal Court for the massacres he's committed," he said.

"We will not speak to any mediators whether they are Iranian, Syrian or Russian."

The Associated Press, Reuters and msnbc.com's Alastair Jamieson contributed to this report.

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Syria has agreed to allow the United Nations and international agencies to expand humanitarian operations in the country, where at least 1 million people need assistance after 14 months of bloody conflict, a senior U.N. aid official said on Tuesday. 

"This agreement was secured in Damascus with the government there, in writing," John Ging, who chaired the closed-door Syrian Humanitarian Forum, told reporters in Geneva. 

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"Freedom of movement, unimpeded access for humanitarian action within Syria, is what it's all about now. The good faith of the (Syrian) government will be tested on this issue today, tomorrow and every day," he said. 

However, the announcement came as Syria labeled 17 diplomats, most of them American or European, as "persona non grata" (unwelcome) in response to a mass expulsion of Syrian envoys by Western capitals last week.

Almost all of those listed have already been recalled by their governments.

"The Syrian Arab Republic still believes in the importance of dialogue based on principles of equality and mutual respect," a ministry statement said. "We hope the countries that initiated these steps will adopt those principles, which would allow relations to return to normal again."

Among those listed were diplomats from former ally Turkey, which has become an outspoken critic of Assad's crackdown and has given haven to army defectors. The foreign ministry said the ambassador and all the staff at Turkey's embassy in Damascus were unwelcome.

The United States, France, Britain, Canada, Germany, Italy, Spain, Australia, Bulgaria and Switzerland coordinated a move to expel Syrian diplomats in response to a massacre of 108 people in the city of Houla. Nearly half those killed were children.

The BBC reported that US ambassador Robert Ford was called back to Washington in October over fears for his safety, while all British embassy staff were withdrawn in March on security grounds.

France also closed its embassy that month in protest at the "scandalous" repression of dissent by the government, it said.

Syrian security forces are trying to crush a revolt against President Bashar al-Assad's rule.

The London-based Syria Observatory for Human Rights said government forces backed by helicopters clashed on Tuesday with rebels in several towns in the coastal province of Latakia.

"These are the heaviest clashes so far in the area sincethe beginning of the revolution (in March 2011)," Rami Abdelrahman, the head of the Observatory, told Reuters.

Reuters and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.

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