Brahimi in Syria to push for truce

Envoy hopes securing a ceasefire during holiday will pave way for peace initiatives

UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi is pressing Damascus for a truce to break the cycle of bloodshed

DAMASCUS: Peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi will press Damascus for a truce to break the cycle of bloodshed, as Lebanon’s opposition blamed President Bashar al-Assad for a deadly Beirut bombing.

But even as Brahimi prepared to meet Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem in Damascus, fighting raged on northern battlefields, where regime jets have been hammering the strategic town of Maaret al-Numan daily since rebels captured it on Oct 9.

UN-Arab League envoy Brahimi is hoping to secure a ceasefire during the four-day Aidil Adha Muslim holiday starting Oct 26, which he believes could pave the way for other, more permanent peace initiatives.

“We will have discussions here with the government, the political parties and civil society about the situation in Syria,” Brahimi said when he arrived in Damascus on Friday.

“We will talk about the need to reduce the current violence and about whether it is possible to stop for the occasion of Aidil Adha.”

He is also expected to hold talks with Assad at a later date.

Brahimi is backed by UN chief Ban Ki-moon and League head Nabil alArabi who believe that if a truce is agreed during the celebration, it could be extended to bring some respite in the 19-month conflict that has already killed more than 34,000 people.

Washington too has backed the truce call.

“We urge the Syrian government to stop all military operations and call on opposition forces to follow suit,” said a State Department statement.

Damascus has said it is ready to discuss the truce plan with Brahimi, while the opposition says the regime must take the first step and halt its daily bombardments.

Fears that the civil war in Syria is spilling over into neighbouring countries were compounded when a massive car bomb exploded in Lebanon’s capital Beirut on Friday, killing eight people, including a senior intelligence official linked to the anti-Damascus camp in Lebanon, General Wissam al-Hassan.

Lebanon’s anti-Syria opposition accused Assad of being behind the attack which has heightened tensions in the region.

Lebanese militant movement Hezbollah is a strong ally of Assad, a member of the Alawite offshoot of Shi’ite Islam whose forces are battling a Sunni-led uprising that erupted in March 2011.

Syrian Information Minister Omran al-Zohbi condemned what he called a “terrorist, cowardly” attack.

Such incidents were “unjustifiable wherever they occur”, he said.

On the ground, rebels and regime forces remained locked in battle for the northwestern town of Maaret al-Numan on the Damascus-Aleppo highway linking Syria’s two biggest cities.

Syrian forces battered the town on Friday a day after strikes on a residential area killed dozens of people, nearly half of them children, rescuers said at the scene.

The military wants to regain control of the highway to resupply units under fire in Aleppo for the past three months and assist 250 troops besieged in their Wadi Deif base.

The Syrian Observatory said at least 133 people were killed in nationwide violence on Friday: 55 civilians, 45 soldiers and 33 rebels.

With the fallout from the Syrian conflict reverberating across the region, Washington has reportedly stepped up intelligence cooperation with Turkey, whose ties with Assad’s regime have rapidly deteriorated. — AFP