Talks a failure: Syrians 21 killed in clashes IRAN SAYS MEET UNSUCCESSFUL

Damascus, July 1: The opposition and state media on Sunday both branded an international plan for a transition in strife-torn Syria a failure, as the death toll for a weekend of violence topped 140.

World powers meeting in Geneva on Saturday agreed that the transition plan could include current regime members, but the West did not see any role for President Bashar alAssad in a new unity government.

Russia and China insisted that Syrians themselves must decide how the transition takes place, rather than allow others to dictate their fate.

Moscow and Beijing, which have twice blocked UN Security Council resolutions on Syria, signed up to the final agreement that did not make any explicit call for Assad to cede power.

Official Syrian media and the opposition Local Coordination Committees (LCC) group demonstrated rare agreement in slam- ming the outcome.

The meeting “failed,” trumpeted Al-Baath, newspaper of the ruling party of the same name.

“The agreement of the task force on Syria in Geneva on Saturday resembles an enlarged meeting of the UN Security Council where the positions of participants remained the same,” it said.

The LCC, which organises protests on the ground in Syria, said the outcome showed once again a failure to adopt a common position.

It called the transition accord “just one version, different in form only, of the demands of Russian leaders allied to the Assad regime and who cover it militarily and politically in the face of international pressure.”

Burhan Ghalioun, former head of the opposition Syrian National Council said “this is the worst international statement yet to emerge from talks on Syria.”

— AFP At least 21 people were killed in fighting across Syria on Sunday, a watchdog said, with rebels and regime troops clashing in several provinces as they battled for control of restive areas. Regime forces shelled several areas of Damascus province. Iran on Sunday said weekend talks held between major powers seeking a solution to the conflict in Syria were “unsuccessful” because it and Syria were excluded. “This meeting was unsuccessful... because Syria was not present and some influential nations were not present,” deputy foreign minister for Arab-African affairs Hossein Amir Abdolahian told state television. Abdolahian highlighted the “tension between the United States and Russia in the talks,” which were held Saturday in Geneva. “Any kind of decision-making for Syria from outside is surely not effective,” he added. The meeting agreed a transition plan for Syria whose language skirted around the issue dividing Western powers on one side and Russia and China on the other: whether or not Syrian President Bashar alAssad should have a role in a new unity government. Russia and China say it is up to the Syrian people to decide Assad’s fate. The two countries have blocked action in the UN Security Council against Assad’s government. But the United States insists Assad should go as part of a solution to the vicious internal conflict that has cost nearly 16,000 lives since it erupted in March 2011. Washington also objected to Iran taking part in the Geneva meeting, resulting in it being excluded. Iran is Assad’s chief regional ally, supplying him with humanitarian and financial aid. Some Iranian and US reports also said Iranian military personnel were in Syria helping in the crackdown against opposition groups, though Tehran officially denies that. — AFP