DAMASCUS, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- Damascus on Thursday denounced UN-Arab League envoy for Syria Lakhdar Brahimi for his remarks against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Brahimi's recent press statements indicated "his bias in favor of well-known parties that conspire against Syria," the Syrian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
In a recent interview with the BBC, Brahimi hinted that the Syrian leader should go.
"President Assad could take the lead in responding to the aspiration of his people rather than resisting it," Brahimi said.
Responding to Brahimi's remarks, the ministry said no one has the right to speak on behalf of the Syrian people, who are the ones entrusted with determining their future and their political system.
It also said Assad's new political plan, which was offered on Sunday, represents the sole exit to the Syrian crisis, adding it "expected the international envoy to read and analyze the components of the political program."
Despite the reproaching, the ministry said Syria is still hopeful of making Brahimi's mission successful, stressing that it will keep cooperating with him in that regard.
As peace efforts floundered, battles have renewed on Thursday at the Taftanas military airfield in Syria's northwestern province of Idlib between Syrian troops and members of al Qaida-linked al-Nusra Front.
Earlier in the day, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London-based pro-opposition group, said that Syrian jets had bombed Taftanas airbase after it was stormed by Islamist rebels on Wednesday.
It said violent clashes continued inside the airfield between the rebels and the regular troops and estimated there were 20 helicopters in the airfield. Some of them were damaged due to the clashes while others were grounded because of malfunctions.
Armed rebels have previously attacked the Hamadan agricultural airport, in the eastern al-Bukamal city, and the Marj al-Sultan military airfield on the outskirts of Damascus that was only used for landing and fixing aircraft.
Meanwhile, UN agencies are trying hard to mitigate the effects of severe winter storms across northern Jordan on the situation of Syrian refugees living at the Za'atari Syrian refugee camp there.
"The UN refugee agency and its partners are working to drain the section of the camp affected and mitigate the effects of further rainfall. It has also relocated some affected and vulnerable families to pre-fabricated housing," said UN spokesperson Martin Nesirky.
The UN Children's Fund has also faced obstacles serving the 55,000 children that live at the refugee camp.
The deteriorating situation at the Za'atari camp comes amid a continuing influx of refugees from across the border, fleeing the violence in Syria, where more than 60,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed since the uprising against the Assad regime began in early 2011.
DAMASCUS, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- Syrian Foreign Ministry on Thursday accused international envoy Lakhdar Brahimi for his recent "biased" remarks against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
In an extraordinary broadside, the Syrian government said Brahimi went "too far" in his recent press statements that have shown his "bias to well-known parties that conspire against Syria. " Full story
|
