DAMASCUS: Activists called for rallies across Syria on Friday to demand “immediate military intervention” as UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan prepared to brief the divided UN Security Council on his peace efforts.
Gulf Arab states announced they were following Riyadh's lead in closing their Damascus embassies in protest at the violence, which monitors said Thursday on the first anniversary of its outbreak has cost more than 9,100 lives.
Activists called on their Facebook page, Syrian Revolution 2011, for nationwide protests after weekly Muslim prayers to demand “immediate military intervention by the Arabs and Muslims, followed by the rest of the world.”Huge rallies in support of President Bashar al-Assad were held in Damascus and other major cities on Thursday to mark the anniversary.
But numbers have fallen at anti-regime demonstrations as security forces seize protest centres such as Idlib in northwest Syria after heavy shelling and bloody assaults.
With the opposition divided, Western countries have been opposed to military intervention although Qatar and Saudi Arabia, Assad's fiercest critics in the Arab world, have come out in favour of arming the rebels.
Ahead of UN participation in a Syrian-led humanitarian mission to protest cities at the weekend, Annan was to give a videoconference briefing to the Security Council from Geneva at 1400 GMT on his talks with Assad in Damascus.
The briefing came amid mounting pessimism among diplomats of Western governments that have spearheaded demands for tough action about his mission's prospects for success.
The former UN chief has received a response to the “concrete proposals” he submitted to the Syrian leader last weekend but has more “questions and is seeking answers,” his spokesman Ahmad Fawzi said.
He “is still in contact with the Syrian authorities – the dialogue continues,” Fawzi added.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday Moscow was using its contacts with the Syrian regime to fully cooperate with Annan but that other world powers should use their influence with the armed opposition.
“Other Security Council members should also do their job and demand the opposition not provoke an escalation of the situation,” he said.
Annan has said his talks were centred on the need for an immediate halt to the bloodshed, access for humanitarian organisations, and for political dialogue, which the opposition has so far rejected.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon called for unity Monday as a meeting of Security Council foreign ministers exposed the stark divide between Arab and Western governments and Damascus allies Beijing and Moscow on how to respond to the crisis.
China and Russia have twice used their veto powers to block draft resolutions condemning the Syrian authorities, charging that they were unbalanced and aimed at regime change.
Moscow has also hit out at a new US draft, saying that the onus it places on the regime to halt the violence first is unreasonable in a conflict that is now as much armed insurgency as peaceful protest movement.
It is a position that has angered human rights groups.
“City after city, town after town, Syria's security forces are using their scorched earth methods while the Security Council's hands remain tied by Russia and China,” said Sarah Leah Whitson of Human Rights Watch.
In a breakdown of the 9,113 deaths in the past 12 months, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the toll comprised 6,645 civilians, 1,997 members of the security forces and 471 rebels.
On the ground, activists said Free Syrian Army rebels clashed with regular troops between Artuz and Muadhamiya in the Damascus region overnight, without giving any immediate report of casualties.
But Syrian Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said seven people were killed in overnight fighting in Dmeir and Qatana, also in the Damascus region.
And security forces on Friday killed a civilian in Deir Ezzor in the east of the country, his monitoring group said.
It said at least 34 other people were killed in violence on Thursday, mostly in Idlib province bordering Turkey, where authorities said they were making contingency plans for a major refugee exodus.
Ankara also recommended that Turks leave Syria.
“Developments in Syria pose serious security risks for our nationals,” the foreign ministry said in a statement. “Therefore it is strongly recommended that Turkish nationals currently in Syria leave and return home.”
The United Nations and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation are to send experts on a Syrian government-led humanitarian mission to the protest cities of Homs, Daraa and Hama where thousands have reportedly been killed.
UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos stressed “it is increasingly vital that humanitarian organisations have unhindered access to identify urgent needs and provide emergency care and basic supplies. There is no time to waste.”
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