CAIRO/BEIRUT, Jan 9 (Reuters) – The U.N. peace envoy for
Syria said on Wednesday that Bashar al-Assad could have no place
in a transitional government to end civil war, the closest he
has come to calling directly for the embattled president to
quit.

A peace plan agreed by major powers in Geneva last year
envisages an interim administration. “Surely he would not be a
member of that government,” U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi told
Reuters in an interview in Cairo.

BEIRUT, Jan 9 (Reuters) – Syrians believe that 40 years of
Assad family rule is too long, the international mediator for
Syria said, the closest he has come to calling directly for
President Bashar al-Assad to leave power.

U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi appears to have been pushed to
take a firmer stance by a speech Assad delivered on Sunday,
which was billed as a new peace proposal but offered no
concessions and included a vow never to talk to foes he branded
terrorists and Western puppets.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – The worst winter storm in two decades has hit the eastern Mediterranean this week, bringing destruction and death to Syria and its neighbours who are already dealing with a refugee crisis from the country’s civil war.

Opposition activists in Syria, where war has forced hundreds of thousands of people from their homes and cut off access to food, fuel and power for cities and towns, say dozens of people have died there in four days of relentless extreme weather.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Fighting raged across Syria on Monday with clashes reported just a few miles from where President Bashar al-Assad had unveiled a “peace plan” that Syrians on both sides said would do nothing to end the country’s 21-month-old uprising.

Hours after Assad addressed cheering loyalists at the Damascus Opera House on Sunday in his first public speech in months, fighting erupted near the road to the city’s international airport, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

BEIRUT, Jan 7 (Reuters) – Fighting raged across Syria on
Monday, including just a few miles from where President Bashar
al-Assad had unveiled a “peace plan” that Syrians on both sides
said would do nothing to end a 21-month-old uprising.

Hours after Assad addressed cheering loyalists at the
Damascus Opera House on Sunday in his first public speech in
months, clashes erupted near the road to the city’s
international airport, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights
said.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – A defiant President Bashar al-Assad presented what he described as a new initiative on Sunday to end the war in Syria but his opponents dismissed it as a ploy to cling to power.

Appearing before cheering supporters who packed the Damascus Opera House, it was his first such speech since June and first public appearance of any kind since a television interview in November.

BEIRUT, Dec 27 (Reuters) – The international envoy seeking a
solution to Syria’s 21-month-old conflict said on Thursday
political change was needed to end the violence which has killed
44,000 people, and called for a transitional government to rule
until elections.

Speaking in Damascus at the end of a five-day trip during
which he met President Bashar al-Assad, Lakhdar Brahimi did not
spell out detailed proposals but said that only substantial
change would meet the demands of ordinary Syrians.

BEIRUT, Dec 26 (Reuters) – Syrian President Bashar al-Assad
sent a senior diplomat to Moscow on Wednesday to discuss
proposals to end the conflict convulsing his country made by
international envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, Syrian and Lebanese sources
said.

Brahimi, who saw Assad on Monday and is planning to hold a
series of meetings with Syrian officials and dissidents in
Damascus this week, is trying to broker a peaceful transfer of
power, but has disclosed little about how this might be done.

BEIRUT, Dec 26 (Reuters) – Syrian President Bashar al-Assad
despatched a senior diplomat to Moscow on Wednesday to discuss
proposals made by envoy Lakhdar Brahimi to end the conflict
convulsing his country, Syrian and Lebanese sources said.

Brahimi, who met Assad on Monday as part of a series of
planned talks with Syrian officials and dissidents in Damascus
this week, is trying to arrange a peaceful transfer of power,
but has disclosed little about how this might be achieved.

BEIRUT, Dec 26 (Reuters) – Syrian foreign ministry officials
headed to Moscow on Wednesday to discuss proposals for ending
Syria’s 21-month-old crisis apparently made by international
envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, Syrian and Lebanese sources said.

Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Makdad and another aide will
sound out Russian officials on the details of meetings with
Brahimi in Damascus this week, a Syrian security source said.