Assad tells Annan: no political solution while rebels are 'spreading chaos'

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Syrian president meets former UN leader in Damascus for talks denounced by opposition as pointless while killing continues
UN and Arab League envoy Kofi Annan with Syrian foreign minister Walid al-Moallem
UN and Arab League envoy Kofi Annan at a working lunch with Syrian foreign minister Walid al-Moallem in Damascus after talks with president Bashar al-Assad. Photograph: Youssef Badawi/EPA

The Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, has held talks with Kofi Annan and told him that no political solution was possible in Syria while "terrorist" groups were destabilising the country.

Assad said Syria was willing to make "any honest effort" to find a solution but added that diplomatic progress was not possible while armed rebels were "operating and spreading chaos".

Annan met Assad in Damascus to press for a political solution to end the bloodshed in Syria.

The two men spoke for two hours at the presidential palace as Syrian opposition leaders denounced the talks, claiming that any deal with Assad was unthinkable while civilians were being killed by government forces.

The talks, described as "positive" by the state-run Sana news agency, came as Syrian troops pushed ahead with a new assault on the northern region of Idlib, shelling one of the centres of the uprising against Assad's rule.

Opposition activists said at least 26 people were killed across Syria on Friday, but there were also signs of more cracks in the Assad regime. A Turkish official said two Syrian generals, a colonel and two sergeants had defected to Turkey on Thursday, soon after Syria's deputy oil minister, Abdo Hussameldin, and a brigadier general announced their desertion of the regime on YouTube.

Western diplomats speculated on Friday that the public nature of their renunciation of the Assad government had encouraged other high-ranking officers to follow their example.

The new defectors were among 234 Syrians who have crossed into Turkey since Thursday. The defections were welcomed by EU foreign ministers meeting in Copenhagen, where they were portrayed as a sign that sanctions against the Damascus government were working.

"It is very good news that clearly high-ranking state and military officials are increasingly turning away from the Assad regime," said Germany's foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle, speaking in Berlin before his departure for the Danish capital. "The process of disintegration of the Assad regime has begun; the signs of erosion will continue. No country can be led in the long term with cruelty and repression."

Meanwhile, the Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, said his government was not protecting Assad's regime but the international community should not blame only one side for the violence.

Speaking in Cairo at an Arab League meeting, Lavrov said the immediate mission was to halt violence and enable humanitarian assistance to reach those in need.

The Qatari prime minister, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani, told Lavrov that rebels fighting Assad should not be labelled "armed gangs" but were defending themselves from systematic killing by the Syrian authorities.

He said a ceasefire was not enough, insisting that those responsible for the violence should be held to account and prisoners freed. Saudi Arabia called on Russia to back the Arab League effort to end the violence.

Russia, a close ally of Syria, angered many Arab governments last month by vetoing a draft UN resolution that would have put pressure on Assad to step down.

Ahead of Saturday's meeting in Damascus, Annan, a former UN secretary general who has been appointed joint UN-Arab League envoy, said he was taking "realistic" proposals to halt the killing, but did not go into details.

The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, said on Friday that Annan's priority was to immediately halt all fighting by government forces and opposition fighters, simultaneously if possible.

Ban said a ceasefire should be quickly followed by inclusive political talks to resolve the year-long conflict.

Burhan Ghalioun, the leader of the main opposition group, the Syrian National Council, said any talks with Assad were pointless as long as the regime continued to massacre its own people.

"It feels like we are watching the same movie being repeated over and over again," Ghalioun told the Associated Press in an interview from Paris. "My fear is that, like other international envoys before him, the aim is to waste a month or two of pointless mediation efforts."

In Beijing, China announced on Friday that it was sending its own envoy to Saudi Arabia, Egypt and France to explain its proposal for a Syrian ceasefire. The foreign ministry spokesman Liu Weimin said the assistant foreign affairs minister, Zhang Ming, would meet Arab League leaders during the seven-day trip, which begins on Sunday.

The conflict in Syria is now one of the bloodiest of the Arab spring, with the UN saying more than 7,500 people have been killed. Activists put the number at more than 8,000.