Lavrov Says Seeks Peace in Syria as Forces Bombard Homs

Russia’s foreign minister said he told Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Tuesday that Moscow wanted to see peace in the Arab world as Syrian forces resumed a bombardment of Homs, a hub of protest and rebellion against Assad’s rule.

The message from one of Syria’s few allies came three days after a Russian-Chinese veto of an Arab-backed U.N. resolution on Syria caused outrage and fired Western resolve to impose more sanctions to cripple Assad economically and oust him from power.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke during talks with the Syrian leader in Damascus held, his ministry said before he arrived along with Russia’s foreign intelligence chief, because of an urgent need for democratic reforms to defuse the conflict.
Lavrov told Assad, according to Russia’s RIA news agency: “Every leader of every country must be aware of his share of responsibility. You are aware of yours. It is in our interests for Arab peoples to live in peace and agreement.”
Lavrov, whose government wields rare leverage in Syria as a major arms supplier to Damascus, said Assad assured him he was committed to halting bloodshed by both sides and that he was ready to seek dialogue with all political groups in Syria.
Opposition activists have dismissed similar pledges made by Assad in the past because he continued trying to crush protests with tanks and troops and branded his foes as “terrorists.”
Russia’s foreign ministry said Lavrov and Foreign Intelligence Service chief Mikhail Fradkov had gone to Damascus because Moscow wanted to see “the swiftest stabilization of the situation in Syria on the basis of the swiftest implementation of democratic reforms whose time has come.”
Syrian state television showed hundreds of people gathering on a main Damascus highway to welcome Lavrov. They were waving Syrian, Russian and Hezbollah flags and held up two Russian flags made out of hundreds of red, white and blue balloons.
BOMBARDMENT OF HOMS RESUMES
Opposition activists said the fresh assault on Homs came after 95 people were killed on Monday in the city of one million, Syria’s third biggest. More than 200 were reported killed there by sustaining shelling on Friday night.
“The bombardment is again concentrating on Baba Amro (district of Homs). A doctor tried to get in there this morning but I heard he was wounded,” Mohammad al-Hassan, an activist in Homs, told Reuters by satellite phone. “There is no electricity and all communication with the neighborhood has been cut.”
A further 19 people were killed and at least 40 wounded in Tuesday’s barrage, activists said. Some reported fighting between army defectors and government forces trying move into areas the rebels hold in Homs.
Syria maintains the military is fighting “terrorists” in Homs bent on dividing and sabotaging the country. State media said “tens” of terrorists and six members of the security forces were killed in clashes there on Monday.