Syrian President Bashar Assad called on Saturday on BRICS
countries, which are expected to hold a meeting in Johannesburg in ten days, to
intervene to end violence in Syria. Assad made his call in a letter delivered
to South Africa President via his adviser Bouthaina Shaaban, as the latter
reported to AFP.
The Los Angeles Times said that the US
Central Intelligence Agency CIA is gathering information on Islamist extremists
in Syria for a possible lethal drone strike against them at a later stage.
In this context, the CIA's Counterterrorism Center, which runs drone
programs targeting militants in Pakistan and Yemen, had recently shifted several
targeting officers to improve intelligence gathering on militants in Syria.
This as, targeting officers have formed a unit with colleagues who were
tracking Al-Qaeda operatives in Iraq.
Citing unnamed current and former US officials, the LA Times newspaper said that
President Barack Obama had not authorized any drone missile strikes in Syria
yet, and none were under consideration.
On the other hand, the European Union's foreign policy chief urged caution on Saturday about a Franco-British drive to lift an EU arms embargo to help rebels in Syria, questioning the impact such a step might have on attempts to reach a political settlement there.
Other EU governments rebuffed efforts by Paris and London at an EU summit on Friday to lift the Syrian arms embargo to help opponents of President Bashar al-Assad, although they asked foreign ministers to discuss it again next week.
EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said the EU needed to think "very carefully" about French and British arguments that lifting the embargo would encourage Assad to negotiate.
However, the Syrian regime is expanding its use of widely banned cluster bombs, an international human rights group said Saturday as the deadlocked conflict entered its third year.
In new violence, rebels detonated a powerful car bomb outside a high-rise building in the eastern city of Deir el-Zour, setting off clashes with regime troops, state TV and activists said.
The blast came a day after Syrians marked the second anniversary of their uprising against President Bashar Assad. The rebellion had begun with largely peaceful protests but in response to a regime crackdown turned into an insurgency and then a civil war.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch said Syrian forces have dropped at least 156 cluster bombs in 119 locations across the country in the past six months, causing mounting civilian casualties.