BEIRUT (Reuters) – Bashar al-Assad always said Syria would be different.

When the Arab uprisings first erupted more than a year ago, the Syrian president confidently said his government was in tune with its people, ready to reform on its own terms, and immune from the turmoil starting to sweep the region.

Within weeks he was proved wrong, when a few dozen protesters took to the streets of Damascus on March 15 to call for greater freedoms, setting off one of the most protracted and bloodiest of all the Arab revolts.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan has ended talks with President Bashar al-Assad and left Syria with little sign of progress on halting the country’s growing political bloodshed.

“I am optimistic for several reasons,” Annan said in Damascus on Sunday. “The situation is so bad and so dangerous that all of us cannot afford to fail.”

BEIRUT (Reuters) – U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan has ended talks with President Bashar al-Assad and left Syria with little sign of progress on halting the country’s growing political bloodshed.

“I am optimistic for several reasons,” Annan said in Damascus on Sunday. “The situation is so bad and so dangerous that all of us cannot afford to fail.”

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Former United Nations chief Kofi Annan, on a difficult peace mission to Syria, prepared to hold more talks with President Bashar al-Assad on Sunday as Syrian forces pursued a drive to crush rebel bastions in the northwest.

Annan, joint envoy of the United Nations and Arab League, appeared to make little headway on Saturday in a “candid and comprehensive” meeting with Assad, who blamed the bloodshed on “terrorists” seeking to destabilize Syria.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan meets President Bashar al-Assad on Saturday to press for a political solution to Syria’s year-long uprising and bloody crackdown in which thousands of people have been killed.

Annan’s talks in Damascus come a day after activists said Assad’s forces killed at least 68 people as they sought to extend control over the rebellious city of Homs and crush armed opposition in the northern province of Idlib.

WASHINGTON/BEIRUT (Reuters) – President Barack Obama said it was only a matter of time before Syrian President Bashar al-Assad left office, but squarely opposed a call to launch U.S. military action to force him out.

Obama said what was happening in Syria was “heartbreaking and outrageous”, and witness accounts of the devastation after government troops bombarded the rebel stronghold of Baba Amr into submission have given attempts to reach a diplomatic solution renewed urgency.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syrian President Bashar al-Assad faced growing Western anger Tuesday for preventing aid from entering a devastated district of Homs and over accusations of human rights abuses, including pictures said to show torture victims at a hospital in the city.

Dozens of men, women and children returned on foot to Baba Amr, passing bullet-pocked and damaged buildings, days after rebel fighters pulled out after a sustained and heavy military assault. The Red Cross was awaiting approval to distribute aid to the devastated district which endured a month of siege.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Moscow may soften its opposition to coordinated international action against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad after Russia holds its presidential election next week, a leading Lebanese politician has said.

International efforts to stop Assad’s violent crackdown on protests have been deadlocked after Russia and China vetoed an Arab and Western-backed draft U.N. resolution which would have paved the way for the Syrian ruler to step aside.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Moscow may soften its opposition to coordinated international action against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad after Russia holds its presidential election next week, a leading Lebanese politician has said.

International efforts to stop Assad’s violent crackdown on protests have been deadlocked after Russia and China vetoed an Arab and Western-backed draft U.N. resolution which would have paved the way for the Syrian ruler to step aside.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Western and Arab powers meeting in Tunis on Friday will demand Syrian authorities allow immediate access for aid to the cities of Homs, Deraa, Zabadani “and other areas under siege,” according to an updated draft declaration obtained by Reuters.

The draft conclusion of the conference also calls on Damascus “immediately to cease all violence” and pledges to deliver humanitarian supplies within 48 hours if Syria “stopped its assault on civilian areas and permitted access.”