UN envoy worried after talks with Assad as fighting continues in Syria

Dec. 24, 2012 - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, right, meets with UN Arab League deputy to Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi in Damascus, Syria. (AP/SANA)

BEIRUT – The international envoy to Syria said after talks with President Bashar Assad on Monday that the situation in the country was still "worrying" and gave no indication of progress toward a negotiated solution for the civil war.

Lakhdar Brahimi said he and Assad exchanged views on the crisis and discussed possible steps forward, which he did not disclose. He spoke briefly to reporters after meeting the Syrian leader at the presidential palace in Damascus.

"The situation in Syria is still worrying and we hope that all the parties will go toward the solution that the Syrian people are hoping for and look forward to," Brahimi said.

Syria's state news agency quoted Assad as saying his government supports "any effort in the interest of the Syrian people which preserves the homeland's sovereignty and independence."

Brahimi has apparently made little progress toward brokering an end to the conflict since starting his job in September, primarily because both sides adamantly refuse to talk to each other.

The government describes the rebels as foreign-backed terrorists set on destroying the country. The opposition says that forces under Assad's command have killed too many people for him to be part of any solution.

Activists say more than 40,000 people have been killed since the Syrian uprising began in March 2011.

Brahimi's two-day visit was to end later Monday. It is his third to Damascus as an envoy of the United Nations and the Arab League.

The security situation in Damascus and elsewhere in the country has declined since Brahimi's previous visits. Instead of flying in to the Damascus International Airport as he did on earlier visits, Brahimi drove to Damascus over land from the Lebanese capital Beirut because of fighting near the Damascus airport.

Reports by anti-regime activists of a government airstrike Sunday in the rebel-held central town of Halfaya that killed scores of people also cast pall over Brahimi's visit.

Some activists said the strike had targeted a bakery. Amateur videos posted online showed the bodies of many dead and wounded scattered in a street. The videos appeared to be genuine and corresponded with other AP reporting.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Monday it had collected the names of 40 men and three women killed in Halfaya. The group also reported seeing photos of the dead bodies of 15 more unknown men.

On Sunday, it reported 60 dead.

Rami Abdul-Rahman, the group's head, said he could not confirm that the attack was an airstrike or that it had targeted a bakery.

Syria's state news service blamed the attack on "an armed terrorist group" -- its shorthand for the rebels -- accusing them of filming the aftermath to "frame the Syrian army."

In the videos, however, armed rebels are clearly among those tending to the dead and wounded.

In neighboring Lebanon, the state news service said unknown gunmen had kidnapped three Syrians and one Lebanese man who were traveling from an area near the Syrian border to the eastern Bekaa Valley.

Syria's conflict has exacerbated tensions in Lebanon between those who support and oppose the Assad regime. Both sides have dispatched fighters to Syria, and there have been some clashes between the rival sides inside Lebanon itself.