Russia's Sergei Lavrov seeks peace in Syria as forces bombard Homs

Russia won a promise from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Tuesday to bring an end to bloodshed in Syria, but Western and Arab states acted to isolate Assad further after activists and rebels said his forces killed over 100 in the city of Homs.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, representing a rare ally on a trip to the Syrian capital other states are shunning, said Russia now wanted to resolve Syria's crisis in line with an Arab plan Moscow and Beijing vetoed in the UN Security Council.

The Russian mediation failed to slow a rush by countries that denounced the Russian-Chinese veto three days ago to corner Syria diplomatically and cripple Assad with sanctions in hopes of toppling him and encouraging reforms to avert chaos in a region straddling major fault lines of Middle East conflict.

Opposition activists said government forces renewed shelling of the central city of Homs on Tuesday just before Lavrov's arrival, killing some 19 people in an onslaught that they say has claimed over 300 lives in the last five days. There were also reports from residents of shelling and fighting on Tuesday between government and rebel forces in Hama, another urban stronghold of anti-Assad sentiment.

Syria says Homs - the heart of 11 months of protest against Assad's rule, parts of which are held by insurgents including army defectors - is the site of a running battle with "terrorists" directed and funded from abroad. Its references to foreign interference are widely read to include Gulf Arab states, which followed the lead of Washington and European Union countries on Tuesday in reducing their diplomatic presence in Damascus.

"The president of Syria assured us he was 'completely committed to the task of stopping violence regardless of where it may come from'," Interfax quoted Lavrov as saying after his meeting with Assad, accompanied by Russia's top spy. Lavrov, whose government wields unique leverage as a major arms supplier with long-standing political ties to Damascus, told Assad it was in Russia's interest for "Arab peoples to live in peace and agreement", the RIA news agency said. Lavrov also affirmed Russia's "readiness to help foster the swiftest exit from the crisis on the basis of positions set out in the Arab League initiative", according to Interfax.

Russia has supported an Arab League peace proposal for Syria floated last November envisaging a withdrawal of troops from cities and towns, release of prisoners, and reforms. But there was no indication from Lavrov's quoted remarks that Russia was now backing the League's explicit call on Assad to step down.

Lavrov said Assad, whose family has ruled Syria with an iron fist for 41 years, assured him he was committed to halting bloodshed by both sides and that he was ready to seek dialogue with all political groups in the country. Opposition activists have dismissed similar pledges made by Assad in the past because he continued trying to crush protests with tanks and troops and branded his foes as "terrorists".

Russia's foreign ministry said Lavrov and Foreign Intelligence Service chief Mikhail Fradkov had gone to Damascus because Moscow wanted to see "the swiftest stabilisation of the situation in Syria on the basis of the swiftest implementation of democratic reforms whose time has come".

Syrian state television showed hundreds of people gathering on a main Damascus highway to welcome Lavrov. They were waving Syrian, Russian and Hezbollah flags and held up two Russian flags made out of hundreds of red, white and blue balloons.

Bombardment of homs resumes

Opposition activists said the fresh assault on Homs came after 95 people were killed on Monday in the city of one million, Syria's third biggest. More than 200 were reported killed there by sustaining shelling on Friday night.

"The bombardment is again concentrating on Baba Amro (district of Homs). A doctor tried to get in there this morning but I heard he was wounded," Mohammad al-Hassan, an activist in Homs, told Reuters by satellite phone.

"There is no electricity and all communication with the neighbourhood has been cut." A further 19 people were killed and at least 40 wounded in Tuesday's barrage, activists said. Some reported fighting between army defectors and government forces trying move into areas the rebels hold in Homs.

Activists and residents of areas near the border town of Zabadani, where army defectors have a toehold after Assad's troops withdrew under a ceasefire, said the government forces renewed shelling on Tuesday morning.

At least nine people have been killed by heavy weapons fire into the town since Monday, activists said. Syria maintains the military is fighting "terrorists" in Homs bent on dividing and sabotaging the country.

State media said "tens" of terrorists and six members of the security forces were killed in clashes there on Monday. Syrian state television said a committee charged with drawing up a new Syrian constitution - one of several political reforms promised by Assad - had completed its work on Tuesday. Assad has said parliamentary elections will be held when the constitution is approved, but has also pledged to eradicate "terrorists" he associates with the violence.

Syria's opposition, which rejected a Russian invitation for talks with Syrian officials in Moscow, says Assad's promises of reforms have been discredited by persistent armed attacks on protests, in which the UN says 5,000 people have been killed.

"HYSTERIA"

Moscow and Beijing were the only members of the 15-member U.N. Security Council to vote against the resolution backing an Arab League call for Assad to yield power and start a political transition. The double veto prompted unusually undiplomatic Western criticism, which Lavrov said verged on "hysteria".

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) said its members were recalling their ambassadors from Damascus and expelling Syrian envoys from their own capitals, in response to surging violence.

"It is necessary for the Arab states... to take every decisive measure faced with this dangerous escalation against the Syrian people," the Saudi-led bloc said in a statement, adding: "Nearly a year into the crisis, there is no glint of hope in a solution."

Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter, was the first country to pull out of an Arab League monitoring in Syria, followed by the other five GCC members. The collapse of that mission set the stage for the U.N. Security Council showdown.

European Union states followed up their denunciation of the veto by preparing a new round of sanctions on Syria, EU diplomats said on Tuesday, with the focus on central bank assets and trade in precious metals, gold and diamonds. Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, an ex-ally who has turned against Assad, described the UN vetoes as "a fiasco for the civilised world" and said Ankara was preparing a new initiative with those who oppose the Syrian government.

Russian clout

Russia, keen to retain a Middle East foothold highlighted by naval facilities in Syria, may be torn between trying use its rare clout to shore up Assad and seeking his exit. Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby told Reuters he spoke to Lavrov on Monday and said the foreign minister would present an initiative to Damascus.

Asked if he thought it could end the crisis, he replied: "They believe so." Russia may try to buy time by counselling the government to make some concessions and reduce the bloodshed, in one view.

"I think that now, after Russia imposed a veto, Lavrov (is) travelling to tell Assad that we did everything possible," said Fyodor Lukyanov, editor of the journal Russia in Global Affairs.

"Now the main task for Lavrov is to tell Assad that if there is no visible change in Syria, then regardless of the Russian position he should be bracing for external military measures," Lukyanov said. Russia has argued that Saturday's draft U.N. resolution was one-sided and would have amounted to taking the side of Assad's opponents in a civil war.

China's veto of the measure followed Russia's lead, analysts and diplomats said. Catherine al-Talli, a senior member of the opposition Syrian National Council, said the military assault on Homs appeared to be designed to show Moscow that Assad was in control and could serve until his term expires in 2014.

"Assad needs to look strong in front of the Russians. He has not managed to control Homs since the eruption of the uprising and now that he has seen that he faces no real threat from the international community, it appears that he wants to finish off the city," Talli said.

US embassy shut, european ambassadors recalled

The United States shut its embassy and said all staff had left Syria due to worsening security in the country, which has also been hit by suicide bombings in Damascus. France, Italy, Britain, Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain recalled their ambassadors from Syria. Japan was considering reducing the number of its diplomatic staff in Damascus.

US President Barack Obama said that, however hard Western countries are prepared to lean on Assad diplomatically, they still had no intention of using force to topple him, as they did against Muammar Gaddafi in Libya last year.

"I think it is very important for us to try to resolve this without recourse to outside military intervention. And I think that's possible," he told NBC's Today show. "The council considers that it is necessary for the Arab states... to take every decisive measure faced with this dangerous escalation against the Syrian people.

Nearly a year into the crisis, there is no glint of hope in a solution." US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Sunday the United States would work with other nations to try to tighten sanctions against Assad's government and deny it arms in the absence of a UN resolution.   

(Additional reporting by Joseph Logan in Beirut, Mitra Amiri in Tehran, Gleb Bryanski and Steve Gutterman in Moscow, Fiona Ortiz in Madrid and Jonathon Burch in Ankara; Writing by Dominic Evans; Editing by Mark Heinrich)