International peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi is due to meet with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Saturday, the United Nations said, as he tries to find a way to end the country's 18-month conflict, which has killed thousands.
Brahimi, who replaced former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan at the start of September as the U.N.-Arab League Syria mediator, arrived in Damascus on Thursday as state forces pounded its eastern outskirts to flush out rebels trying to retain a foothold in the Syrian capital.
Earlier on Friday the veteran Algerian diplomat met with the Russian ambassador to Syria and the Chinese charge d' affairs and on Thursday he spoke with the Iranian ambassador to Syria.
He also met with Syrian Foreign
Minister Walid al-Moallem, who stressed that any initiative should "focus
on the Syrian people's interest," said the state-run news agency, SANA.
The visit comes as violence
convulses the country's largest city, Aleppo, and the outskirts of the capital,
Damascus. Activists said regime forces shelled Aleppo and clashes with rebels
were reported outside Damascus.
The visit came as violence spread across
several Syrian regions including Aleppo and AFP quoted the Syrian Observatory
for Human Rights as saying that warplanes shelled two police departments that
were controlled by rebels. The Observatory reported that the army destroyed a police
department that was controlled by rebels in Hanano, adding that explosions were
heard in Damascus.
SANA reported that army troops chased
terrorist groups in Aleppo and Aleppo Reef, destroying their arms-laden cars. In
Reef Damascus, the army chased terrorists in the areas of Sayyida Zaynab and
al-Hujaira.
Like every Friday, anti-regime protests
spread across Syria under the slogan "Friday of Idlib"
In international positions, Turkish
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said from a conference in Ukraine that the
regime of President Assad is nearing its "inevitable" end, warning of the crisis'
extension to the entire region.
Meanwhile, the Chinese Foreign Ministry
announced that the representatives of a Syrian opposition group will visit
China next week, a month after talks conducted by Bashar Assad's adviser
Buthaina Chaaban.
For the full LBCI report, watch the video above.
AP