Syrian President Bashar al-Assad appointed Health Minister Wael al-Halki as prime minister on Thursday, after the defection earlier this week of Prime Minister Riyad Hijab.
Halki, born in 1964, is from the southern province of Deraa where the 17-month-old uprising against Assad erupted. He replaces caretaker premier Omar Ghalawanji who was appointed hours after Hijab's defection.
On the field:
The Free
Syrian Army has partially withdrawn from Aleppo's Salaheddine neighborhood after regime troops shelled the area killing over 40 opposition fighters , a FSA
field officer told AFP on Thursday.
Several Aleppo
neighborhoods that fall under the opposition control have been witnessing
violent shelling by pro-government forces since the early hours of Thursday,
the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported, adding that Thursday’s death
toll stood at 22.
Syrian forces have
engaged in violent clashes on Wednesday in an attempt to control Salaheddine
neighborhood where 162 were reportedly killed.
The observatory added in a statement that 3 tanks and
armored carriers as well as hundreds of soldiers have arrived in the vicinity
of the Officers Club in Aleppo, near the Saadallah al-Jaberi Square in central
Aleppo.
Neighborhoods of al-Shaar and al-Sakhour as well as Hanano
and the road of Salaheddine are coming under shelling by pro-government forces,
according to the observatory.
In Aleppo outskirts,
the observatory reported that opposition militants have controlled the police
station in al-Hader village in Aleppo’s outskirts.
Separately, an Airbus 380
took off on Thursday from the Roissy Airport near Paris. The plane is carrying
a military and medical crew as well as medical assistance to Syrian refugees
along the Syrian-Jordanian border.
On another note, Turkish authorities said on Thursday that more than 2,000 people fled violence in Syria to reach neighbouring Turkey in the past two days, bringing the total number of Syrians who have sought refuge there to more than 50,000.
The rate of refugee flows has risen and there are fears there could be an exodus from Syria's biggest city Aleppo, where there is heavy fighting between President Bashar al-Assad's forces and rebel fighters.
International
positions:
Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi on Thursday called for "serious and inclusive" talks between the Syrian government and opposition groups, warning that internal dialogue was the only way to resolve the crisis.
"The Islamic Republic of Iran firmly believes that the Syrian crisis can only be resolved through serious and inclusive talks between the government and opposition groups that enjoy popular support in Syria," Salehi said at the start of a conference in Tehran to discuss the unrest.
In the speech broadcast on Iranian television, Salehi said that Iran "rejects any foreign and military intervention in Syrian and backs and supports U.N. efforts to resolve the crisis".
REUTERS/LBCI