REPORT: Syrian opposition groups say Assad must go

Diplomacy:

Syrian opposition groups meeting in Spain say they oppose all negotiation with President Bashar Assad's government unless it is aimed at his giving up of power.

Some 80 opposition representatives from inside and outside the country concluded a two-day meeting Tuesday, saying Assad would neither form part of any transition government nor have any role in Syria's future.

Mouaz al-Khatib, former chief of the Syrian National Coalition, said a decision on whether the opposition groups would take part in a new Russia-U.S proposed conference on Syria's future in Geneva will be taken within two weeks.

The groups oppose Assad representatives taking part in the meeting.

At a news conference, the opposition members condemned increased intervention in the Syrian conflict by neighboring Lebanon's Hezbollah group, in support of Assad.

This comes as Syria's opposition and government are preparing to take part in an internationally-sponsored peace conference, the United Nations-Arab League mediator Lakhdar Brahimi said.

On the Field:

Three members of Lebanon's Hezbollah died of wounds sustained while fighting for control of a strategic Syrian town near the Lebanese border, activists said, as the battle in the area raged for the third straight day.

The al-Qussair town, which had been in rebel hands for more than a year, was the target of a government offensive in recent weeks, with the surrounding countryside engulfed in fighting as regime troops backed by Hezbollah fighters seized nearby villages and closed in.

On Sunday, Assad's forces pushed deep inside al-Qussair, taking control of more than 60 percent of the town, but still fighting street battles with rebels in several districts.

On a separate front, Syria said its troops destroyed an Israeli vehicle that crossed into its territory from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and warned that any attempt to violate its sovereignty would meet "immediate and firm retaliation".

In this regard, a statement issued by the Syrian Armed Forces said its troops destroyed the Israeli vehicle along "with those in it." It said Israel later fired two missiles towards one of the Syrian positions in the village of Zobaydiya, causing no casualties.

The army statement carried by SANA said any attempt to infiltrate Syria's sovereignty will face "immediate and firm retaliation."

Israel denied the report, saying one of its vehicles was hit by gunfire on its side of the Golan ceasefire line, but the incident highlighted the potential for renewed conflict along a frontline that has been largely quiet for nearly four decades.

It is worth noting that sporadic fire from Syria's civil war has occasionally hit the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, a strategic plateau Israel captured in the 1967 war. Israel assumes most of the incidents are accidental fire but its forces have responded on several occasions.

Tuesday's incident; however, marked the first time that the Syrian army has acknowledged firing at Israeli troops across the frontier, and appeared to be an attempt by President Bashar Assad's regime to project toughness following three Israeli airstrikes near Damascus this year.

Israel has not taken sides in Syria's internal conflict, but has been worried about the involvement of Hezbollah in the fighting.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held out the prospect on Sunday of Israeli strikes inside Syria to stop Hezbollah and other opponents of Israel getting advanced weapons.

Netanyahu said Israel was "preparing for every scenario" in Syria. He added "we will act to ensure the security interest of Israel's citizens in the future as well".

Refugees:

On another note, Jordan has turned away thousands of Syrian refugees in the past week in the first such clampdown since the crisis in Syria began more than two years ago, diplomats, activists and aid workers said on Tuesday.

Jordan, due to host an international conference on Syria on Wednesday, has already taken in 473,587 Syrians out of a total of 1.5 million who have fled the conflict in an exodus that has accelerated in the past four months, U.N. figures show.

All four unofficial crossing points used by refugees trying to escape bombardments in the southern province of Deraa have been closed for the past six days, refugees and aid workers say, although the official frontier post at Jaber remained open.

They said Syrian families trying to pass into Jordan from the rebel-held border villages of Nasib and Tel Shehab had been turned away with no reason given by the Jordanians.

The daily exodus is facilitated by Syrian rebels and Jordanian troops on either side of a border marked only by a barbed wire barrier and Jordanian sentry towers.

A Western diplomat linked the closure to security measures before Wednesday's "Friends of Syria" meeting in Amman, where foreign ministers of Western and Gulf states opposed to Assad will discuss the quest for a political solution in Syria.

"The Jordanians are worried about security issues (and) are sending signals to the international community highlighting the huge refugee burden they are now shouldering," he said.

Resource-poor Jordan has long sought to win more outside help in its struggle to cope with the vast influx of refugees.

In Geneva, a U.N. official said it was important that Jordan keep its borders open to refugees.

"Of course we are discussing with everybody, we are discussing with the Jordanian government to make sure that people are able to cross without facing any difficulty to reach safety wherever they are," Panos Moumtzis, regional coordinator of the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR, told a news briefing.
  

REUTERS/AP/LBCI


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