Assad to 'sync reform with stability' as Homs battered

Syrian troops continue to shell Homs Damascus – Agencies Syria’s President Bashar Al-Assad said on Friday that reforms have to be synchronised with a return to peace in the unrest-swept country, state media reported. Assad, in remarks to visiting Mauritanian Prime Minister Moulaye Ould Mohamed Laghdaf, said that reforms and a “return to peace” must be concurrent in Syria, according to the official SANA news agency.
The president, whose regime is facing an Arab Spring-inspired uprising that began with pro-democracy protests 11 months ago, added that “Syria has been targeted in various ways to create chaos,” stressing that “armed terrorist groups” are responsible for the violence in the country, which killed nearly 6000 Syrians since March last year.
“The political reforms carried out by the state must move in parallel with efforts to restore security and stability and protect civilians,” he said, quoted by SANA.
Assad this week called a February 26 referendum on a draft constitution that could end nearly five decades of rule for his Baath Party. Opposition groups promptly rejected the new charter and urged voters to boycott the poll.
Laghdaf flew to Damascus on Thursday with a message for Assad, amid renewed Arab efforts to end the bloodshed in Syria, his country’s official news agency AMI said, without elaborating on the content of the message.
A diplomatic source in Nouakchott said, however, that Mauritania was seeking to convince Assad of “the need to cooperate with the Arab League in order to avert an internationalisation of the crisis in Syria.”
Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zhai Jun said the international community must respect Syria's sovereignty after Damascus talks late on Friday with his counterpart Faisal Meqdad, state media reported.
"We exchanged views on ways to strengthen our cooperation in the face of this difficult period in Syria," said Zhai, whose government has twice joined Moscow in blocking UN Security Council condemnation of the Damascus regime's deadly crackdown on pro-democracy protests that kicked off last year.
"The sovereignty, unity, independence and territorial integrity of Syria must be respected by all sides and by the international community," SANA quoted him as saying.
"China hopes that national dialogue and reforms will move forward in Syria," he added.
on and forced "regime change" in Syria.
China and Russia have faced a barrage of criticism for blocking action by the UN Security Council, including from Arab nations with which Beijing normally has good ties.
"We urge the Syrian government and all of its political parties to immediately and fully end all acts of violence and quickly restore stability and normal social order," said Zhai.
Foreign ministry spokesman Liu Weimin told reporters Zhai would "exchange views with the Syrian government and parties concerned in Syria on the current... situation to push for a peaceful and proper resolution of the... crisis."
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia renewed its warning to its citizens against traveling to Syria due to the aggravating situation in the Arab country,” Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.
An official source told SPA that "due to a serious escalation in [violence] the Saudi government [informed its citizens about] a travel warning for Syria and advised them to return to the kingdom.”
The Saudi Foreign Ministry had called on its citizens in Syria to return home last November, warning Saudi against travelling to Syria at the time.
In the same context, Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders and Belgian Minister of Defense Pieter De Crem, Friday, decided to immediately send a mission for inspection of the security around the Belgian Embassy and its operation in the Syrian capital Damascus.
A Belgian Foreign Ministry announcement said this joint mission will be composed of an ambassador and two military personnel. The team will collect detailed information on security conditions for staff, to provide the necessary measures, and to study alternatives to the current operation of the representation and to this end contacts will be made with other diplomatic missions in Damascus, it added.
On a different level, Local Coordination Committees of Syria (LCC) stated that the death toll on Friday reached 56, mostly killed in Homs by Syrian security, in addition to 12 soldiers from the Free Syrian Army (FSA) who were publicly executed in Daraa.
According to LCC, a demonstration started in Salah el-Dean neighborhood in Aleppo, where participants demanded the trial of those who slaughtered Syrians and chanted for the victory of Homs and Daraa.
Mass protests reportedly broke out in Damascus suburbs, chanting against Assad and the regime. Defectors from the Syrian regime army were also reported to be constantly increasing, joining the FSA.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says shells were slamming into the neighborhoods of Baba Amr, Bayadah, Khaldiyeh and Inshaat in Homs on Friday. It added that Syrian troops "committed a new massacre" near the northwestern town of Jisr Al-Shughour, killing 19 people — 11 of them from the same family. The report however was not confirmed.
Syrian troops have been attacking the neighborhoods since 4 February. Amateur videos showed at least one tank shelling Baba Amr from a close distance.
The observatory also reported clashes between troops and defectors in the eastern province of Deir al-Zour, saying one civilian and one of the regime forces were killed.
Hadi Abdullah of the Syrian Revolution General Commission told the AFP news agency: "It's unbelievable - extreme violence the like of which we have never seen before, with an average of four rockets every minute."
"There are thousands of people isolated in Homs. There are neighbourhoods that we know nothing about. I myself do not know if my parents are OK. I have had no news from them for 14 days," he added.
The activist said that an 'unprecedented' number of military planes and surveillance aircraft were overflying Homs.
Footage of the assault showed a tank firing on Homs, according to a video posted by activists on video-sharing website YouTube.
The latest bombardment comes after the UN General Assembly on Thursday demanded an immediate halt to Syria's brutal crackdown on dissent, which human rights groups say has cost more than 6000 lives in the past 11 months.