Damascus still not on the road to peace

Syrian government forces reasserted control of Damascus suburbs on Tuesday after beating back rebels at the capital’s gates as diplomatic pressure mounted on President Bashar al-Assad at the United Nations.

Western and Arab diplomats pushed for a UN Security Council resolution which would call for Assad to step down to defuse a 10-month-old uprising against his family’s dynastic rule. They will make the case for a resolution adopting a plan by the Arab League for Assad to quit, with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe and Britain’s William Hague presenting a united western front.  The resolution’s fate depends on whether the Arabs and their Western backers can persuade Russia not to veto it.

On the battlefront, activists in eastern districts of Damascus said troops fired in the air as they advanced beyond areas from which the defector Free Syrian Army withdrew, capping three days of fighting activists said killed at least 100 people. Tanks also swarmed into the area. “The suburbs are under an unannounced curfew. A small grocery shop opened this morning and soldiers came and beat the owner and forced him to shut down,” said an activist in the Ain Tarma neighbourhood on Tuesday.  Others said residents of some eastern districts were allowed to flee their neighbourhoods in vehicles by advancing troops, but that security forces in the district of Irbin rounded up young men at gunpoint and detained them. Events on the ground are difficult to confirm as the Syrian government restricts most access by journalists.

Activist groups said 25 people were killed on Monday in Damascus suburbs and dozens more died in other parts of the country, mostly in raids in and around  of Homs, which has seen some of the heaviest attacks by Assad’s forces. The uprising against Assad — one of the most violent revolts of the “Arab Spring” — has entered a new phase in recent weeks, with an insurgency whose leadership is based in Turkey daring to show its face at the outskirts of the capital. 

A draft of the UN Security Council resolution, calls for a “political transition” in Syria, and says the Security Council could adopt unspecified further measures if Syria does not comply with its terms. It endorses the Arab League power transfer plan.