Turkey presses Syria to end crackdown on protests (AP)
BEIRUT ? President Bashar Assad discussed "concrete steps" to end the violent crackdown on protesters during six hours of talks Tuesday with Turkey's foreign minister, even as the Syrian military unleashed a fresh assault on dissent that activists said killed more than 20 people.
Speaking to reporters on his return to Turkey, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said the talks were cordial but did not say what specific steps they had discussed or whether Assad had agreed to consider them.
"We discussed ways to prevent confrontation between the army and the people and tensions like those in Hama in the most open and clear way," Davutoglu said, referring to the Syrian city that has become a flashpoint in the 5-month-old uprising against Assad's autocratic rule.
"The coming days will be important to see if the expectations are being met. We hope that internal peace and calm is achieved and steps for reform are taken," Davutoglu added.
The Syrian regime has shown no signs of scaling back its crackdown despite increasing diplomatic isolation. Envoys from India, Brazil and South Africa were expected to meet with Syrian officials in Damascus on Wednesday, part of a broad diplomatic push to stop the killings.
Syria's state-run news agency reported Assad told Davutoglu the government will be relentless in its pursuit of "terrorist groups" to safeguard stability and security in the country. Syrian authorities blame the unrest on extremist and terrorist groups seeking to destabilize the country, even though most of the people killed are unarmed, peaceful protesters.
SANA said Assad also pledged to press ahead with reforms. But promises reform of have rung hollow, especially since they have been coupled with a campaign that rights groups say has killed about 1,700 people, mostly civilians, since March.
Diplomatic pressure has done little so far to stop Syria's regime, a close ally of Iran that is used to international isolation. But Davutoglu's visit was a significant message because Turkey until recently had close ties to Damascus.
Ankara has become increasingly critical of its neighbor over the crackdown that has sent thousands of Syrian refugees flooding across the border into Turkey.
Syrian troops launched fresh assaults on several restive cities and town, including in Idlib province near the Turkish border. Two prominent Syrian activist groups said 22 people, including eight children, were killed across the country. The reports could not be independently confirmed.
A rights activist near the central city of Hama said military operations in the town of Tibet el-Imam just north of the city killed at least five children, four of them from the same family.
"They were playing in the fields when they were struck by gunfire," said the activist, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
Syria has blocked nearly all outside witnesses to the violence by banning foreign media. It also has restricted local coverage that strays from the party line that the regime is fighting thugs and religious extremists who are acting out a foreign conspiracy.
"The situation in Syria is heading to the point of no return," Egypt's Foreign Minister Mohammed Amr said in Cairo, urging the Syrian government to carry out nationwide reforms and end the crackdown.
International human rights groups Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch called on the U.N. Security Council to escalate pressure on Syria by imposing an arms embargo and more targeted sanctions. The calls came ahead of a key U.N. Security Council debate set for Wednesday at which Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is to deliver a report on Syria.
A Security Council statement issued on Aug. 3 unanimously condemned Syria's authorities for "widespread violations of human rights and the use of force against civilians" but the presidential statement is not considered binding.
"Any honest examination of the facts of the horrific situation in Syria should be more than sufficient to persuade the Security Council to come up with a legally binding resolution, not just a meek statement," said Malcolm Smart, Amnesty International's director for Middle East and North Africa.
State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the U.S. cannot have a partnership with a government that is killing innocent people. She said the U.S. has made numerous overtures since 2009, but Assad has rejected them.
The bluntness of Tuesday's message reveals the administration's exasperation with a government it has tried to reach out to, despite a long history of tense relations.
Assad's defiant stance is, in many ways, a product of the country's history as a pariah nation.
Syria has been under U.S. sanctions since former President George W. Bush was in power, citing Syria's support for terrorism, its pursuit of weapons of mass destruction and other activities including efforts to undermine U.S. operations in Iraq. Now the country is under new sanctions linked to the crackdown.
Iran's economic and political support has enabled Syria to survive the earlier sanctions and international isolation. And the help appears to be continuing: The White House has accused Iran's hard-line regime of aiding Syria in the crackdown.
Syria had been emerging from international isolation before the uprising broke out, and its burgeoning economic and political ties to Turkey were helping open up the country. But Turkey, NATO's biggest Muslim member, has not been able to persuade the regime to end the crackdown.
Turkey, which shares a 545-mile(877-kilometer) border with Syria, also has taken in thousands of Syrian refugees, straining the relationship. As of Tuesday, there were 7,258 Syrians living in Turkish refugee camps.
India's U.N. Ambassador Hardeep Singh Puri said his country's representative is scheduled to arrive in Damascus on Tuesday and will join representatives from Brazil and South Africa for a meeting with Syria's foreign minister to appeal for an end to the crackdown and to promote democratic reforms.
Saudi Arabia, along with Bahrain and Kuwait in the Gulf, recalled their ambassadors this week.
In an editorial published Tuesday, the Al Baath newspaper of Syria's ruling Baath party said the regime was hopeful that Turkey and the Gulf Arab nations will "quickly correct their stands."
Also Tuesday, the country's former defense minister ? who was removed from his post on Monday ? denied reports that he was sacked because he was unhappy with the crackdown.
"I affirm that they are fabricated stories that run counter to reality and aim at harming Syria and its national army," Gen. Ali Habib said in a statement he read on Syrian TV.
Echoing the regime's statements, Habib said his poor health was behind the shakeup.
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Fraser contributed to this report from Ankara, Turkey. AP writer Zeina Karam in Beirut contributed to this report.
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