“It’s not surprising, but it’s discouraging and disappointing,” US State Department spokesman Mark Toner said.
Arab leaders, meanwhile, urged a peaceful end to the bloodshed through “serious national dialogue,” at a landmark summit in the Iraqi capital yesterday.
They approved a resolution calling on the “Syrian government and all opposition factions to deal positively with the envoy (Kofi Annan) by starting serious national dialogue.”
Arab leaders said the plan should be implemented “immediately and completely.”
It said “the massacre committed by the Syrian forces against civilians in Baba Amro ... can be considered crimes (against) humanity.”
“The solution for the crisis is still in the hands of the Syrians as a government and opposition,” Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby told Arab heads of state at the summit meeting.
Syria’s opposition groups continue to demand that Assad must go and have not agreed to peace talks.
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon kept up pressure on Assad, saying he must turn his acceptance of the six-point peace plan into action, to shift his country off a “dangerous trajectory” with risks for the entire region.
Meanwhile, Toner said that Syrian forces have done nothing to comply with the plan in the three days since agreeing to it. “We’ve seen absolutely nothing on the ground that indicates that they’re adhering to its calls for Syrian artillery and heavy weaponry to go back to barracks and for a cease-fire to allow humanitarian assistance to be put in place,” Toner said.
In Istanbul, Syrian opposition representatives met to try to settle deep internal disputes before the arrival of Western foreign ministers for a “Friends of Syria” conference on Sunday to map out where the year-old uprising is heading.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki warned that arming the rival camps in Syria would lead to a “proxy war” fought by outside powers. “Based on our experience in Iraq, the option to arm either side of the conflict will lead to a regional and international proxy war in Syria,” Al-Maliki said.
He warned his fellow Arab leaders that Al-Qaeda may benefit from uprisings in the region by finding new areas in which to operate.
“The main thing we are afraid of is that Al-Qaeda will find new cracks (to operate) after it was defeated in Iraq, in Arab countries that are witnessing important developments,” Al-Maliki said at the summit.
“We warn that Al-Qaeda might ride the wave of the Arab uprisings,” he added. The emir of Kuwait called on Syria to listen to reason and cooperate with Annan.
Emir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah called on Damascus to “listen to the language of reason and wisdom and end all sorts of violence against its people,” saying that “prolonging the crisis in Syria will only make it more complicated.” He also urged the government of Assad to “cooperate effectively” with Annan’s efforts.
A large blast rocked central Baghdad near the Iranian Embassy on the outskirts of the Iraqi capital’s heavily-fortified Green Zone as the landmark summit opened. The blast was heard at around 1:40 p.m. and took place in the Salhiyeh neighborhood of central Baghdad. As smoke billowed into the sky, security forces members, military vehicles and firefighters were seen heading to the site of the blast.
The blast came despite strict security measures by the Iraqi government, which had 100,000 security forces members on alert in Baghdad, and effectively locked down the city, closing swathes of roads, shutting down air space and cutting mobile phone networks.
Clashes across Syria yesterday killed at least 23 people, including 14 civilians. Five civilians, including a woman and a child, died as regime forces stormed villages near the town of Maaret Al-Numan, in northwestern Idlib province, which has been under a relentless army assault since the start of the month, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Three soldiers also died. Six other civilians as well as two regime forces and an armed rebel died in fighting in central Homs province.
Three people died in nearby Hama province along with two soldiers who were killed when their vehicle came under attack by armed rebels, the Britain-based group added.
It said that an army colonel was assassinated by armed men in the northern city of Aleppo, where an officer was also killed on Wednesday.
The state news agency SANA said the two officers were killed by an “armed terrorist group” yesterday as they were heading to work.
“Four terrorists in a car killed officers Abdel Karim Raie and Fouad Shaaban as they were heading to work,” the agency said.
Clashes were also taking place near the town of Zabadani, in Damascus province.
A loud blast was reported in Harasta, also in Damascus province, and plumes of smoke could be seen rising near an army checkpoint, the Observatory said.
In the village of Dael, in southern Daraa province, fierce clashes were reported between regime forces and rebel troops. “Eight soldiers have been wounded and a military armored vehicle was hit,” the Observatory said.
