Pope calls for a stop in Syria's war, as Morsi supports Assad's trial

Pope Benedict urged on Monday the international community to end what he called the endless slaughter in Syria before the entire country became a "a field of ruins."    

He made the appeal in particularly strong terms during a yearly "state of the world" address to diplomats accredited to the Vatican.    

He said Syria, where the United Nations estimates that 60,000 people have been killed, was "torn apart by endless slaughter and (is) the scene of dreadful suffering among its civilian population".    

He called for an "end to a conflict which will know no victors but only vanquished if it continues, leaving behind it nothing but a field of ruins."

For his part, Egyptian President Mohammad Morsi told CNN on Sunday that he supports the Syrian people's call for Bashar Assad to face trial for the war crimes he and his army committed, and predicted Assad's regime would fall in the country's bloody civil war.              

"The Syrian people, through their revolution, and through the movement will, when the bloodshed stops, move to a new stage where they will have an independent parliament and the government of their choosing," Morsi said, according to excerpts released by the network.

In turn, Iran welcomed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's television address, saying he had rejected violence and offered a "comprehensive political process" to end his country's conflict, Iranian media reported on Monday.        

"This plan rejects violence and terrorism and any foreign interference in the country and outlines a future for the country ... through a comprehensive political process," Iranian foreign minister Ali Akbar Salehi said in a statement published by state news agency, IRNA.    

Salehi urged world and regional powers to support attempts to end the crisis through a "Syrian solution".


On the ground:

Syria's state media said Monday that government troops repulsed a rebel attack on a police school in the northern city of Aleppo, one day after President Bashar Assad called on Syrians to fight rebels he characterized as religious extremists.
 
SANA news agency said members of the "terrorist group" were killed and wounded in the late Sunday battle but did not specify the number, The government and the pro-regime media refer to rebels as terrorists.
 
In his speech Sunday, Assad laid out terms for a peace plan but dismissed any chance of dialogue with "murderous criminals" who he said were responsible for nearly two years of violence. Nearly 60,000 people have died, according to a recent United Nations estimate.
 
Assad appeared confident and relaxed in a one-hour speech  his first public address in six months. He struck a defiant tone, ignoring international demands for him to step down and saying he is ready to hold a dialogue  but only with those "who have not betrayed Syria." He also vowed to continue the battle "as long as there is one terrorist left."
    
He offered a national reconciliation conference, elections and a new constitution but demanded regional and Western countries stop funding and arming rebels trying to overthrow his regime first.
 
Syria's opposition swiftly rejected the proposal. Those fighting to topple the regime, including rebels on the ground, have repeatedly said they will accept nothing less than the president's departure, dismissing any kind of settlement that leaves him in the picture.
 

REUTERS/AP