The Syrian regime accused
regional powerhouses Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey of trying to destroy the
country and vowed Sunday that it would defeat rebels who have captured large
swathes of the commercial hub Aleppo.
Foreign Minister Walid
al-Moallem, on a visit to Iran, leveled some rare public criticism of Sunni
powers in the Middle East, saying Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey are supporting
a plot hatched by Israel to destroy Syria. The three countries have all been backing
rebels trying to overthrow authoritarian President Bashar Assad.
"Israel is the mastermind of all in
this crisis," Moallem told a joint news conference in Tehran with his
Iranian counterpart Ali Akbar Salehi . "They (Qatar, Saudi Arabia and
Turkey) are fighting in the same front."
Iran, Syria's only remaining ally
in the Middle East, has provided Assad's government with military and political
backing for years, and has kept up its strong support for the regime since the
uprising began in March 2011.
The idea of a managed transition
of power in Syria is "an illusion," Iranian foreign minister said in
a press conference in Tehran on Sunday.
"Thinking naively and wrongly that if there is a power
vacuum perhaps in Syria and if there is a transition of power in Syria, simply
another government will come to power, that I think is just a dream," Ali
Akbar Salehi said at a news conference during a visit by his Syrian counterpart
Walid al-Moualem.
"It's an illusion. We have to look carefully at Syria and
what's happening inside the country."
For his part Arab League Chief denounced what is happening in Syria, especially Aleppo, saying that it "amounts to war
crimes".
From Italy, and during his Sunday sermon
Pope Benedict XVI issued an urgent appeal for an end to "all violence and bloodshed" in Syria.
On the ground:
Military forces in Aleppo fired
tank and artillery shells at neighborhoods as rebels tried to repel the
government air and ground assault. According to activists, rebels who launched
an operation to take over Syria's largest city a week ago are estimated to
control between a third and a half of Aleppo's neighborhoods.
Aleppo-based activist Mohammed
Saeed says the shelling is most intense in the southwestern neighborhoods of
Salaheddine and Saif al-Dawla, some of the first areas seized by the rebels
when they started last week a push to take over the city after being routed
from the capital Damascus.
The Britain-based Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights also reported heavy fighting and explosions in
Aleppo Sunday.
The government said security
agents were hunting down armed groups in Salaheddine.
The state-run news agency SANA
quoted an Aleppo official as saying that troops would continue to pursue
"terrorists" until the city is "purged" of armed groups.
AP/REUTERS/LBCI