• Syria 'ready to discuss' Assad's resignation, deputy PM says

    Maxim Shemetov / Reuters

    Qadri Jamil, Syria's deputy prime minister for economic affairs, listens during a news conference in Moscow, Aug. 21, 2012.

    By NBC News staff and wire services

    Syria is ready to discuss the resignation of President Bashar Assad through negotiations with the opposition, Syrian Deputy Prime Minister Qadri Jamil said Tuesday in Moscow, according to AFP.


    "The resignation (of Assad) as a condition to be fulfilled before the start of a dialogue means it will be impossible to start the dialogue. Any issue can be discussed during the dialogue," Jamil said, according to Reuters.

    "We are ready to discuss even that issue (the resignation of Assad). But resignation before finding the mechanisms acceptable for Syrian people - is that a real democracy?" Jamil added.

    The deputy prime minister was in Russia to meet with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and other Russian officials.

    On Monday, President Barack Obama said he would have to rethink his current opposition to U.S. military engagement in Syria if the regime there were to use or move its chemical and biological weapons.

    Obama draws 'red line' for Syria on chemical and biological weapons

    "We have been very clear to the Assad regime, but also to other players on the ground, that a red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized," the president said. "That would change my calculus. That would change my equation."

    At the news conference in Moscow, Jamil appeared to dismiss Obama's comments.

    "Everything points at the fact that other countries have these (chemical) weapons. And this makes us remember the Iraqi mass destruction weapons story. After Iraq was captured, it was discovered that there are no weapons of mass destruction there. The West is looking for an excuse for direct intervention. If this excuse does not work, it will look for another excuse," he said, according to Reuters.

    "Regarding Obama's threats, they are media threats to be used in the media campaign in readiness for the coming elections. There are different games played at the moment in the United States which are connected with the upcoming elections," Jamil said, according to Reuters.

    The deputy prime minister added that a military intervention in Syria was "impossible" because it would lead to a confrontation beyond the country's borders.

    "Direct military intervention in Syria is impossible because whoever thinks about it apparently is heading towards a confrontation wider than Syria's borders," Jamil added.

    Related story

    Syria regime 'reeling, armed to the teeth' with chemical weapons

    The United Nations says more than 18,000 people have been killed in the 17-month old conflict that is affecting neighboring states.

    Russia and China have opposed military intervention in Syria throughout the revolt, and Russia warned the West on Tuesday against unilateral action on Syria.

    Speaking after meeting China's top diplomat, Lavrov said Moscow and Beijing were committed to "the need to strictly adhere to the norms of international law ... and not to allow their violation," according to Reuters.

    Reuters contributed to this report.

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  • Russia blames 'both sides' for Syria massacre

    Fighting continues as UN peace broker Kofi Annan arrives in Damascus. NBC's Richard Engel reports.

    By msnbc.com news services

    Updated at 3:34 p.m. ET: MOSCOW -- Russia further backed away from its support of Syrian President Bashar Assad on Monday, saying his government bears the main responsibility for the violence in the country and calling for a full investigation into its role in the deaths of more than 100 civilians in Houla. 

    "Both sides have obviously had a hand in the deaths of innocent people, including several dozen women and children. This area is controlled by the rebels, but it is also surrounded by government troops," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said after talks in Moscow with visiting British Foreign Secretary William Hague. 

    Meanwhile, international mediator Kofi Annan, who arrived in Damascus Monday for talks with senior Syrian officials, said he was horrified by the killings in Houla and urged the Syrian government to take bold steps to show it was serious about reaching a peaceful solution to the country's crisis.

    Lavrov spoke a day after Russia agreed to join the rest of the U.N. Security Council in blaming the Syrian government for attacking residential areas in Houla, a collection of villages near the central city of Homs. The council, however, avoided saying who was responsible for the massacre of at least 108 men, women and children. 

    Opposition activists said Assad's forces killed at least 41 people in an artillery assault on the city of Hama shortly after the U.N. Security Council condemned Friday's massacre in nearby Houla. The authorities in Damascus issued a denial that troops played any role at Houla, rejecting the U.N. version of events.

    Lavrov said there was no doubt that government forces had used artillery and tanks to shell Houla, but he noted that many of the dead appeared to have been shot at close range or tortured. "The guilt has to be determined objectively," he said. "No one is saying that the government is not guilty, and no one is saying that the armed militants are not guilty." 

    Yuri Kadobnov / AFP - Getty Images

    Visiting British Foreign Minister William Hague (L) looks at Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov during their meeting on Syria in Moscow on Monday.

    But Lavrov did issue some of Russia's harshest criticism of Assad to date, saying the Syrian  government "bears the main responsibility for what is going on" because it is failing to provide for the security of Syrian citizens. He hedged the criticism by claiming that Syria's government is facing an increased threat from terrorists, whose bombings have the "clear signature of al-Qaida." 

    Alexei Malashenko, a Middle East expert with the Carnegie Moscow Center, said Russia can no longer defend Assad's government and may be warning him that he needs to change his approach. 

    "Bashar Assad is driving himself and Russia into a corner," Malashenko said. "If this goes on, Russia will have no other option" but to pull its support. "Bashar has definitely gotten the sense that he may lose Russia's sympathy and he may step back a bit." 

    Syria blamed terrorists for the Sunday massacre of more than 100 people, including children. Washington isn't buying it. NBC's Richard Engel reports.

    Lavrov and Hague both called for greater efforts to implement special envoy Annan's six-point peace plan, which calls on both sides to respect a cease-fire. 

    Speaking shortly after arriving in Damascus, Annan said he expected to have "serious and frank discussions" with Assad. The two men are due to meet on Tuesday, according to the Syrian Foreign Ministry.

    Clinton: Syria leader's 'rule by murder' must end 

    Annan said the massacre in Houla was "an appalling crime, and the (U.N.) Security Council has rightly condemned it." Western countries have blamed Assad's forces for the killings, a charge Damascus denies.

    "I urge the (Syrian) government to take bold steps to signal that it is serious in its intention to resolve this crisis peacefully, and for everyone involved to help create the right context for a credible political process," Annan told reporters on his arrival in Damascus. 

    Shaam News Network / Reuters

    A resident of Houla shows a body to a UN observer as they stand near the bodies of people whom anti-government protesters say were killed by government security forces on Friday.

    "It's right, as Sergey Lavrov has just done, to call on all parties to cease violence, and we are not arguing that all violence in Syria is the responsibility of the Assad regime, although it has the primary responsibility for such violence," Hague said. 

    Lavrov added that "we don't support the Syrian government, we support Kofi Annan's plan." 

    The Russian envoy called for everyone in the international community to exert more pressure on both sides to implement Annan's plan, saying it was not clear from talks with opposition members that they were getting the message that the plan had full international support.

    He said talk about the need for Assad to step down cast doubt on the West's commitment to the Annan plan and encouraged the opposition to keep up the fight. 

    Hague, however, confirmed that Britain still believes Assad should stand aside. 

    "But the important thing is that the Annan plan is pursued in whatever way it can be pursued," he said. "The alternatives are the Annan plan or ever-increasing chaos in Syria, and a descent closer and closer to all-out civil war and collapse." 

    'Boiling point': On Lebanon's Syria Street, a civil war brews

    China on Monday also condemned the killings of civilians in Houla and called for an end to the violence, but gave no indication it was rethinking its strategy toward the fighting in Syria. 

    NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin reports from war-torn Homs showing how parts of the city have been ravaged by fighting while others spared.

    Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin said that Beijing fully supports Annan's mediation efforts and the UN monitors. 

    The protests against Assad began in March 2011 and turned into an uprising after his government responded with a violent crackdown on dissent. The U.N. estimated that at least 9,000 people were killed in the first year of the conflict, but hundreds more have been killed since then. 

    Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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  • Group: Militia 'slaughtered' 3 families in Syria's Homs

    Russia's foreign minister held talks with President Bashar Assad in Damascus as Syrian forces bombarded the city of Homs. NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin reports

    By msnbc.com staff and news services

    Updated at 9:50 a.m. ET: Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday the world faced a growing "cult of violence" and Moscow must not let events like those in Libya and Syria be repeated in Russia.  His comments followed claims of a slaughter and deadly overnight shelling in the city of Homs.

    "We of course condemn all violence regardless of its source, but one cannot act like an elephant in a china shop," Putin told Russian religious leaders at a meeting as talk turned to Libya and Syria.

    "Help them, advise them, limit, for instance, their ability to use weapons but not interfere under any circumstances," said Putin, whose country vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution last week backing an Arab League call for Syria's president to cede power.

    "A cult of violence has been coming to the fore in international affairs in the past decade," he said. "This cannot fail to cause concern ... and we must not allow anything like this in our country."

    Putin has often criticized the United States and its NATO allies over its use of military force abroad, from the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 to a NATO air campaign that helped Libyan rebels drive Moammar Gaddafi from power last year.

    Meanwhile, the U.N.'s High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said she was "appalled" by the Syrian government's military onslaught of the city of Homs.

    US shutters embassy in Syria, withdraws staff

    The former South African high court judge said it was extremely urgent "for the international community to cut through the politics and take effective action to protect the civilian population."

    Updated at 4:10 a.m. ET: Militiamen loyal to President Bashar Assad stormed the homes of three unarmed families on the edges of opposition districts in the city of Homs, killing women and children,  the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told Reuters.

    "The shabbiha (Assad's militiamen) broke into three houses overnight and slaughtered a family of five -- the father, wife and their three children, a family of seven in another house and a eight in a third," dissident in exile Rami Abdelrahman, who heads the British-based Observatory, told the news service.

    The report followed claims that overnight bombardments killed at least 47 civilians in Homs.

    There was no immediate comment from Syrian authorities and the report could not be verified because the authorities have placed tight restrictions on access to the country.

    Abdelrahman said the attacks occurred near al-Fardaos roundabout and near al-Naziheen and Karm al-Zeitoun districts, where loyalist forces have been advancing after heavy bombardment of the city of one million, 88 miles north of the capital, Damascus.

    He gave the names of the families as Ghantawi, Tirkawi and al-Zamel.

    "The shabbiha (which means ghosts in Arabic) are acting as if they are at the peak of their power and that they can do anything to prevent the Assad regime from falling," Abdelrahman said.

    Meanwhile, Russia stuck to its opposition to Western and Arab pressure for Assad to cede power.

    The outcome of any talks on ending the bloodshed in Syria must not be predetermined, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at a news conference in Moscow. The comments suggested that Russia, which vetoed a draft U.N. Security Council resolution supporting an Arab League call for Assad to quit, has not changed its stance on Syria following a meeting with Assad in Damascus on Tuesday.

    Original story: AMMAN -- Bombardment of the Syrian city of Homs by government forces killed at least 47 civilians over the past eight hours, activists in the city and opposition sources said on Wednesday.

    "The regime didn't expect us to continue our struggle against them," activist Karam Abu Rabea told The Guardian newspaper via Skype.  "They didn't think we would persist. So now it is using its last card. It is the genocide card."

    Hillary Clinton lambastes 'travesty' of UN veto on Syria

    "Electricity returned briefly and we were able to contact various neighborhoods because activists there managed to recharge their phones. We counted 47 killed since midnight," activist Mohammad Hassan said by satellite phone.

    The attacks on Homs continued despite Russia winning a promise from Assad to bring an end to bloodshed, while Western and Arab states acted to further isolate Assad following the onslaught on the city, one of the bloodiest of the 11-month uprising.

    Armored forces loyal to President Bashar Assad have thrust deeper into the central city of Homs, firing rockets and mortar rounds to subdue opposition districts, activists said, a day after Russia said Assad wants peace.

    Tanks entered the Inshaat neighborhood and moved closer to Bab Amro district, which has been the target of the heaviest barrages by loyalist troops that have killed at least 100 civilians in the last two days, activists said.

    "Tanks are now at Qubab mosque and soldiers have entered Hikmeh hospital in Inshaat. They also moved closer to Bab Amro and shelling is being heard on Karm al-Zeitoun and al-Bayada," activist Mohammad al-Hassan said by satellite phone from Homs.

    "Communications have been cut in many parts of Homs and it is difficult to put together an overall picture. But tanks are in main thoroughfares in the city and appear poised to push deep into residential areas," he added.

    The official state news agency said "armed terrorist groups" attacked police roadblocks in Homs and fired mortar bombs at the city, with three falling on the Homs oil refinery, one of two in the country. It gave no details of any damage.

    Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, representing a rare ally on a trip to the Syrian capital, said on Tuesday that both countries wanted to revive a monitoring effort by the Arab League, whose plan to resolve Syria's crisis was vetoed by Moscow and Beijing in the U.N. Security Council.

    Lavrov - whose government wields unique leverage as a major arms supplier with longstanding political ties to Damascus, and maintains a naval facility on its coast - told Assad that peace was in Russia's interests.

    Msnbc.com staff and Reuters contributed to this report.

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