Syrian television said on Wednesday that the forces
loyal to President Bashar al-Assad had restored calm and security in Haffeh
after they "cleansed it of armed terrorist groups", a term
authorities use to describe rebels fighting Assad.
Syria's Foreign Ministry said earlier on Wednesday that United Nations peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous's comments that Syria is now in a civil war was an unrealistic description of the conflict.
"Talk of civil war in Syria is not consistent with reality... What is happening in Syria is a war against armed groups that choose terrorism," Syrian state news agency SANA quoted a Foreign Ministry statement as saying.
In
international positions, French Minister of Foreign Affairs that France
will propose making Annan’s plan obligatory by using the chapter 7 provision at
the UN. He also added that Paris supports Annan’s proposal for a small contact
group on Syria.
To read more, click
here.
Paris
had earlier demanded a “full stop” of arms exports to the regime of Syrian President
Bashar
Assad.
China said
Wednesday that the situation in Syria had reached a “critical juncture” and expressed
its
“great concern”.
In a joint news conference held with his Iranian
counterpart Ali Akbar Salehi in Tehran, Russia's Foreign Minister
Sergei Lavrov defended his country's sale
of arms to Syria... To read more, click
here.
British Minister of Foreign
Affairs William Hague said that he will hold talks with the Russian foreign
minister on Thursday on the implementation of Annan’s plan.
Meanwhile,
the Turkish foreign ministry reported that some 2,000
Syrian
refugees fleeing violence in Syria have crossed into Turkey in the last
48
hours.
In the field, Syrian troops renewed violent shelling of Homs in a push to regain control of rebel-held territories, while rebels withdrew from Haffeh, under pressure of heavy bombardment,
the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.
The
observatory added that al-Khalediya neighborhood has been coming under shelling
since the morning by pro-government forces.
In related news, the state news agency, SANA, said
"an armed terrorist group" killed the former head of the Syrian
Football Union, Marwan Arafat. SANA said Arafat was attacked as he returned
from Jordan to the neighboring southern province of Daraa. It said his wife was
critically injured, but offered no other details.