Beirut • As fierce fighting continued across Syria on Sunday, the country’s foreign minister, on a visit to Iran, blamed Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey for the escalation of violence and vowed that his government would rout the rebels fighting the army in Aleppo.
“Their plots will fail,” said the minister, Walid al-Moallem. But, he added, that would not stop the “campaign on the international stage against Syria.”
Al-Moallem made his remarks as the Syrian government continued to pound neighborhoods in Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, which has become the latest front in the bloody conflict. In recent days, as opposition fighters have moved to gain control of Aleppo’s neighborhoods, the government has sent armored columns, troops and helicopters to meet them — preparing, residents fear, to move into the city.
More than a dozen people were killed in the fighting, according to antigovernment groups.
On Sunday, activists reported more clashes, including in the Salaheddiin District, but said there had been no mass assault by the army, many of whose troops remained stationed on the city’s outskirts, witnesses said.
Instead, activists said they had noted a change in tactics, saying that the government was using helicopters and artillery to attack several neighborhoods, rather than the tanks that had been deployed in an assault on Salaheddiin and other areas on Saturday.
As Syria’s international isolation has grown, Western nations have accused Iran of continuing to provide President Bashar Assad’s government with weapons and other support. Russia, which has said it has suspended weapons sales to Syria, remains Assad’s staunchest defender, blocking international efforts to remove him from power.
On the other side, Saudi Arabia and Qatar have led an effort to arm Assad’s opponents. Turkey is said to have allowed weapons to move over its border, and U.S. intelligence officials have helped select the recipients, according to U.S. officials.
Al-Moallem played down the domestic opposition to his government, saying that despite the “plot” by those countries — led, he said, by Israel — Syria did not need foreign help to defend itself.
At the same time, the leader of an opposition group suggested Sunday that the rebels would need heavier weapons.
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment