Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said yesterday “saboteurs” were behind unrest against his rule and that political accommodation could not be reached with gunmen.
In just his third speech since the demonstrations began four months ago, Assad appeared tense as he pledged to pursue national dialogue on reform and held out the prospect of expanding a recent amnesty.
However, he said: “We have to distinguish between [protesters and others who have legitimate demands] and saboteurs. The saboteurs are a small group that tried to exploit the kind majority of the Syrian people to carry out their many schemes.”
No political solution was possible with people carrying weapons, he said.
As Syrian forces swept through the northwestern border region with Turkey, blocking refugees fleeing a military crackdown, Assad called on the 10,000 who have already crossed the frontier to come home.
“There are those who give them the impression that the state will exact revenge, I affirm that is not true. The army is there for security,” he said in the speech at Damascus University.
A committee on national -dialogue will meet in the next few days and invite more than 100 personalities to discuss the criteria and mechanism for constitutional reform, he said. He set a one-month target date for presenting recommendations.
In addition to the more than 10,000 Syrian refugees now in Turkey, a further 10,000 are sheltering close to the border just inside Syria in the olive groves and rich farmland around the town of Jisr al-Shughour, Turkish officials said.
Syrian troops and gunmen loyal to Assad seized the town of Bdama, only 2km from Turkey on Saturday, burning houses and arresting dozens, witnesses said.
“There are roadblocks everywhere in Bdama to prevent people from fleeing, but villagers are finding other routes through valleys to escape to the Turkish border,” said Omar, a farmer from Bdama who managed to reach the border area.
“One man in Bdama was injured today and we managed to smuggle him to hospital in Turkey, but many fear getting shot if they attempt to cross the border,” one refugee, a carpenter who gave his name as Hammoud, said by telephone.
Demonstrations erupted overnight in the cities of Hama, Homs, Latakia, Deir al-Zor, the town of Madaya near the Lebanese border, several suburbs of the capital Damascus and in Albu Kamal on the border with Iraq, witnesses and activists said.
Meanwhile, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev ruled out supporting a UN resolution condemning Syria’s crackdown on pro-democracy protesters.
Speaking in an interview with the Financial Times, Medvedev said March’s UN Security Council vote on Libya had paved the way for a military operation.
“What I am not ready to support is a resolution [similar to the one] on Libya because it is my deep conviction that a good resolution has been turned into a piece of paper that is being used to provide cover for a meaningless military operation,” he said.
“There will not be such a resolution. Russia will use its Security Council permanent member rights,” he said, referring to Moscow’s veto as a permanent Security Council member. “But other calls, declarations, including from the Security Council, towards Syria are possible.”
Britain, France, Germany and Portugal have distributed a resolution condemning the Syrian military crackdown. British Prime Minister David Cameron has said if any permanent member tries to veto it then “that should be on their conscience.”
However, Medvedev said: “Right now I am not sure that any resolution is needed because a resolution may say one thing, but actions would be quite different. The resolution may say: ‘We condemn the use of force in Syria’ and after that planes will take off into the air.”
“We will be told: ‘Well, it says there that we condemn so we condemned, [and] dispatched a certain amount of bombers there.’ I don’t want it. In any case, I don’t want to have it on my conscience,” Medvedev said.
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