Kofi, Assad to offer political proposals to rebels

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Kofi, Assad to offer political proposals to rebels

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Kofi Annan and President Assad Monday agreed on a new political approach to end Syria's conflict.

09 July,2012 04:24 pm

We discussed the need to end the violence and ways and means of doing so. We agreed an approach which I will share with the armed opposition, he told reporters after meeting Assad in Damascus.The former UN chief, whose military observers in Syria have been grounded due to escalating violence, said he stressed the importance of moving ahead with political dialogue, which the president accepted.Al-Watan newspaper, which is close to the government, said the Annan-Assad talks focused on the results of the Geneva meeting at the end of June of an international contact group on Syria.They discussed means to implement the results of the meeting on forming a transitional government in Syria that groups government and opposition representatives without mention of Assads departure.World powers at the meeting agreed a plan for a transition which did not make an explicit call for Assad to quit power, although the West and the opposition made clear it saw no role for him in a unity government.Annan said his talks were constructive and candid, echoing Syrian foreign ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi who termed the meeting constructive and good.On his Twitter account, Makdissi said: We reassured Annan of Syrias commitment to implement the six-point plan and hoped other side is mutually committed.Annan said he had received those assurances, but said the plan must be carried out in a much better fashion than before.I am leaving Syria but we will continue our dialogue, and as I said, the approach we discussed about ending the violence will be shared with the armed opposition, Annan said.We have a team here on the ground that will continue to do that and I encourage the government and other entities with influence to help us do that, he said.UN chief Ban Ki-moon called on Friday for the observer mission in Syria be scaled down and to refocus on political efforts to end the conflict.The United Nations sent 300 observers to monitor an April 12 truce, but their mission was suspended in mid-June when chief observer Major General Robert Mood said the conditions for his team on the ground had become too dangerous.More than 17,000 people have now died since the uprising began in March last year, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.