Baath party head in Idlib defects from Syrian regime

UN hopes to turn tide in Syria with peace plan The head of the ruling Baath party in the north west city of Idlib has announced his defection in a video, part of a series showing military defections in Idlib province in the last 24 hours. The first

shows a group of about 25 armed men, forming a new militia. Another showed a group of 11 soldiers defecting to the Free Syrian Army, in Khaan Shaiykhoun, Idlib.
Syrian activist network the Local Co-ordination Committee (LCC) claimed seven people were killed in Hama on Thursday. A further 33 people were killed elsewhere, it said, including 18 in Idlib.
Activist have said shelling has destroyed houses in the Arabaeen district of northeast Hama.
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported heavy fighting in al-Qusayr, near the border with Lebanon. Three residents died in the fighting and four soldiers were killed when rebels ambushed their checkpoint, it said.
Two Syrian children were killed in an attack carried out by an armed group on a bus in the western city of Homs. 
UN chief Ban Ki-moon said on Thursday he hoped the new statement approved by the Security Council on the Syria crisis will prove a “turning point” in world efforts to bring about a lasting peace.
The UN Secretary-General was speaking in Malaysia a day after the 15-nation council adopted a statement demanding that Syria “immediately” implement a peace plan proposed by UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan and gave a veiled warning of international action.
“As the situation on the ground continues to deteriorate, it is more urgent than ever to find a solution,” the United Nations Secretary-General said in a speech in Kuala Lumpur.
“I hope that this strong and united action by the council will mark a turning point in the international community’s response to the crisis,” he said, echoing comments made by his spokesperson after the statement was adopted.
“In clear and unmistakable terms, the Security Council called for an immediate end to all violence and human rights violations,” he said. “It demanded secure humanitarian access and a comprehensive political dialogue between the government and the whole spectrum of the Syrian opposition.”
The Syrian government however has implied it will ignore the UN statement calling for a ceasefire until the opposition stops resisting government troops.
A leading member of the opposition Syrian National Council also dismissed the UN statement on Syria, claiming it merely gives the regime more time to kill civilians.
Speaking to AFP, Samir Nashar, a member of group's executive committee, said: "Such statements, issued amid continued killings, offer the regime the opportunity to push ahead with its repression in order to crush the revolt by the Syrian people.
The leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria also dismissed Annan's peace mission as "insignificant" and backed calls for the rebels to be armed.
In an interview with the pan-Arab magazine Majalla, Mohammed Riad al-Shaqfa criticised feeble international statements on Syria. Speaking before yesterday's UN statement, he called for humanitarian corridors to be established in Syria. "People in Saudi Arabia and Qatar have properly assessed the situation: that the Syrian regime doesn't understand any concept but force and it should be faced by force. The Syrian people have the right to acquire weapons to defend themselves. The Syrian people appreciate their support," said al-Shaqfa.
Staff from UN agencies are also taking part in a government-led assessment of Syrian areas affected by unrest. The agencies include the World Food Programme, the UN Children's Fund , and the World Health Organisation, as well as from the Organisation for Islamic Cooperation (OIC) are accompanying the mission, which intends to visit the governorates of Homs, Hama, Tartous, Lattakia, Aleppo, Deir Ezzor rural Damascus and Deraa. But the UN has not specified which cities would be visited within those governorates, meaning there is no guarantee that the aid workers will be able to access the most devastated areas.
Annan's plan calls for a ceasefire, specifically a "daily two-hour humanitarian pause," to be established, as well as for both sides to engage in political dialogue and to allow humanitarian aid agencies access to areas where citizens have been caught up in an increasingly militarised conflict.
Unlike resolutions, which are legally binding, statements are generally non-binding but require unanimous support from the council.
In a bid to gain support from Russia and China, France softened the text of the statement, removing a section that would have required a review of progress on Annan's proposal in seven days. The government would have been threatened with "further measures" if sufficient progress was not deemed to have been made.
Speaking in Berlin, Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, said that the text of the statement "reflects the reality in Syria and supports Annan's aims. We support it fully".
"The document does not contain any ultimatums, threats or assertions about who is guilty," he said,
Lavrov also spoke of a "future transition" period for Syria but continued to reject calls from most Western and Arab states for President Bashar al-Assad to resign, saying this was "unrealistic".
One of the major sticking points over a resolution on the crisis has been on the issue of how a ceasefire is to be implemented. While previous resolutions have called for the government's forces to stop firing first, Russia and China have insisted that both the government and opposition must lay down arms simultaneously.
The current statement calls on the Syrian government to "immediately cease troop movements towards, and end the use of heavy weapons in, population centres, and begin pullback of military concentrations in and around population centres".
"Similar commitments would be sought by the envoy from the opposition and all relevant elements to stop the fighting" it said.
In related news, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday sent out a warning to Syria’s embattled Assad to carry out the UN plan or face “increasing pressure.”
“To President Assad and his regime, we say, along with the rest of the international community, take this path, commit to it, or face increasing pressure and isolation,” Clinton told reporters.
The UN says well over 8,000 people have been killed in Syria in the past year as Assad’s government has sought to crush a popular revolt.
The statement, which carries less weight than a formal resolution, gives strong backing to a six-point plan that Annan, the former UN secretary-general, put to Assad during talks in Damascus this month.