LONDON ? Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary general, called the escalating crisis in Syria ?extremely dangerous? on Wednesday as news reports spoke of government forces using tanks and helicopters against insurgents on the fringes of Damascus, the capital.
Speaking in Indonesia, Mr. Ban acknowledged that global diplomats could not forecast a likely outcome to the year of rebellion in Syria that has become the bloodiest and most entrenched of Arab uprisings.
?We do not know how events will unfold,? Mr. Ban said in a speech in Jakarta, calling the enduring violence an ?extremely dangerous crisis.?
He said the violence ?has potentially massive repercussions for the region and the world.?
Some reports quoted Mr. Ban as saying Kofi Annan, a former United Nations secretary general and now a special envoy to Syria, would return ?very soon? to Damascus, where he held inconclusive talks with President Bashar al-Assad earlier this month.
Mr. Ban spoke as diplomacy seemed deadlocked despite signs of a cautious shift in Russia, which along with China has shielded Mr. Assad from Western and Arab calls for his ouster.
Sergey V. Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, used some of his harshest language on Tuesday in criticizing Mr. Assad, saying that the Syrian leader had committed many mistakes and that ?no one is inviting him to Moscow? should he resign.
But Mr. Lavrov insisted that Russia still opposed any United Nations Security Council effort to coerce Mr. Assad?s exit and was deeply critical of the opposition forces confronting him. He accused Western nations that want to see Mr. Assad?s departure of complicity in prolonging the Syrian conflict.
On Wednesday, Reuters quoted opposition activists as saying two large Damascus suburbs came under tank bombardment after army defectors in the Free Syrian Army attacked government forces.
Helicopters could be overheard clattering overhead, the activists said, as artillery and other fire slammed into the suburbs of Harasta and Irbin, which government forces took back from the rebels two months ago, Reuters said.
Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=339c2c74d621ba8203e1537f1a4bdf6e
cnn world news today law cnn world news ufo cnn world news video cnn world news videos cnn world news&local
No comments:
Post a Comment