Assad receives copy of new draft constitution, Pope calls for dialogue

A draft constitution has been submitted to Syrian president Bashar Assad at his presidential palace in Damascus, Qadri Jamil, who helped produce the 185-article-document, disclosed today.        

Jamil added that a major consensus reached between all 28 editors of the constitution would help put the document to a general referendum upcoming March. Assad who thanked committee members commissioned to write his new constitution, felt quite satisfied with the outcome, the Baathist official said.      

On the future leading role of the Baath party in running both state and society, Jamil added that the provision would be diluted while the article stipulating the president's religious faith would be observed or remain basically unchanged in the new document.      

Assad notably decreed the formation of an ad-hoc committee for drafting a new constitution last October.      

In the field, sporadic rocket and gunfire broke a respite in Syrian government attacks on opposition-held districts of Homs city on Sunday.                  

The activist Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said four people were been killed in Baba Amro on Sunday morning and at least 34 rockets had rained down on the neighborhood.                

In addition to this, al-Qaida's chief has called on Muslims from other countries to support rebels in Syria seeking to overthrow President Bashar Assad, saying they cannot depend on the West for help.                 

Ayman al-Zawahri, in a videotaped statement released late Saturday, asked Muslims in Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey to join the uprising against Assad's "pernicious, cancerous regime." All four states border Syria.               

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia denied reports in Saudi media that it has formally presented a new resolution on Syria to the United Nations General Assembly Saudi state news agency SPA cited an official at the foreign ministry as saying on Sunday.                      

In Turkey, a Turkish court ordered the arrest of five people on Sunday morning over the forced extradition of Hussein Harmoush, a defected Syrian army officer.                  

The arrested are being interrogated to reveal the reasons behind their act.      

Meanwhile, Pope Benedict XVI urged the Syrian government on Sunday to recognize the legitimate aspirations of its people and embark on a national dialogue to put an end to a violent crackdown on protesters which has killed thousands since March.