UN envoy meets al-Assad, Syrian diplomats expelled over Houla massacre

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UN envoy meets al-Assad, Syrian diplomats expelled over Houla massacre

2012-05-29

As UN envoy Kofi Annan met with Syrian president Bashar al-Assad Tuesday (May 29th) as a number of countries expelled Syrian diplomats in protest of the "massacre" in Houla, AFP reported.

In the meeting, Annan -- the UN-Arab League special envoy to Syria -- conveyed "the grave concern of the international community about the violence in Syria, including in particular the recent events in Houla," his office said.

"He conveyed in frank terms his view to President al-Assad that the six-point plan cannot succeed without bold steps to stop the violence and release detainees, and stressed the importance of the full implementation of the plan," his office said.

Al-Assad was quoted as saying, "The success of the Annan plan depends on the end of terrorist acts and those who support them."

On Friday and Saturday, 108 people were killed in the Houla region of Syria, including 49 children and 34 women, some of them shot dead at point-blank range.

"Most of the rest of the victims in Taldau, one of the areas of Houla, were summarily executed in two separate incidents that local people are attributing to a shabiha paramilitary group," said Rupert Colville, spokesperson for the UN human rights agency.

In protest of the killings, which human rights groups have accused the regime of carrying out, France, Australia, Canada, Germany, Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the United States have expelled Syrian diplomats from their countries.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said the move was aimed at increasing pressure on senior figures in the regime "to get the message across to them that they have to choose, that time will run out for al-Assad."

Damascus has denied responsibility for the killings, blaming foreign-funded "terrorist groups" instead.

Meanwhile, at least 19 people were killed in violence on Tuesday in Syria, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

In central Homs province, seven civilians were killed overnight -- three of them died when the army shelled the outskirts of restive Qusayr, while four died in the city of Homs.

Meanwhile, Arab foreign ministers will meet on Saturday for talks on the 15-month conflict in Syria, Kuwait's top diplomat Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Sabah said.

Kuwait, current holder of the Arab League's rotating presidency, is making contacts with all parties to prepare the ground for the meeting, Sheikh Sabah said on Tuesday, cited by the official KUNA news agency.

"Kuwait is exerting efforts to end massacres and bloodshed in Syria and protect the Syrian people," the Kuwaiti minister said.

Sheikh Sabah said he is scheduled to meet the foreign ministers of China and Russia, both allies of Syria that have used their veto powers on the UN Security Council to block Arab- and Western-backed moves to condemn the government of al-Assad.

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READER COMMENTS

عبير

2012-7-18

With the continuity of the Syrian situation, the futility of the political solution and its absence so far, the conditions of the Syrian refugees who are increasing in number must be discussed seriously and objectively away from panic, and even the impact of the political situation and its paradoxes, but we must pay attention to the worsening humanitarian situation. If the Western community represented in the United States and the European Union, spearheaded by French enthusiasm, provide the Syrian opposition only with rhetorical support, and resolutions that did not stop the killings so far, can these parties help the Syrian refugees practically and with clear logistic and fast assistance? Why don’t those parties assume that an earthquake took place and a tsunami had happened? This needs assistance flows and the provision of the conditions of the accommodation. What are they waiting for? Where is the seriousness? Why did the burden remain on Jordan alone which gave everything it could afford? It is time to engage the States formally and concretely to help those and the international community should reaffirm its will to a humanitarian position alongside the refugees to prove its credibility rather than continuing to speak at the time of murder.
Layth

2012-7-18

There is still military, civilian, material, and logistical Iranian support for Syria with the participation of Iraq that understands the Syrian-Iranian relationship and strives to strengthen it, in addition to the support and the endorsement of Hezbollah to the Syrian regime at more than one level, notably keeping the balance in Lebanon in favor of the continuity of the opening of the Syrian passage and for many political forces that support the Syrian regime to confront the other forces that stand against it, and balance this deterrence for the benefit of the Syrian regime. The most affected parties are the Syrian people who are suffering from murder, blockades and difficult living conditions. The number of the Syrians who have been affected by the war damages directly is over a million Syrians and there are hundreds of thousands in exile, particularly in Turkey and Jordan, wherein the Syrian refugees’ number in Jordan exceeds 100,000 who did not have the opportunities for accommodation or living, and their conditions still raise a lot of questions about the absence of the international community, which is only satisfied with making statements.
شعيب

2012-5-30

The crimes that are happening in Syria are based on injustice and slander, which the free and brave Syrian people refused to turn against, in the genocide that Syrian street gets from the governor of assassinations and torture and a lot of inappropriate pain that occur to the Syrian people. The operations that are happening in Syria are attributable to the Syrian regime and its all organs, without even thinking about that for more than a moment, because the Syrian regime is willing to do more than that and turn Syria into a red hell in order not to be subject to the desire of the people, aside from the power that he is sticking to every day more than the day before. The Syrian regime is condemned in the eyes of the whole world, after the crimes he committed against the Syrian people by using the tools of oppression that should not be used in any event. We saw the Syrian army burying people alive and how many times we have seen the children killed and scattered everywhere. The crimes of the Syrian regime have increased and cannot be erased from history. The Syrian people have seen a lot of massacres that occured to them everywhere across Syria. Even the international border was not safe from it and its actions. The entire Arab world has boycotted the Syrian regime and this is what increased its madness, but no matter how much its madness grows it must stop, and not by its own will but by the will of God the avenger, the Almighty, who will avenge us for what it did to our brothers and our children, who were executed while alive without any fault. God's curse upon you, O Bashar,God's curse on the entire system and all those who kill our brothers in Syria. O Allah avenge us from Bashar and everyone who assisted in every place. God, bury them in their Land O Allah, count them all and kill them one by one. God, they killed and tortured your slaves, take revenge from them. Almighty, O Allah you are the Lord of the oppressed in the land. There is no power except you, take our hands and grips our brothers in Syria, O Allah, destroy them all and don’t keep anyone of them God, make them a lesson for the people. God protect Syria and its people from the evil of tyrants. Amen O Lord of the Worlds.