Kuwaiti officials say Arab foreign ministers will meet next week with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to discuss the crisis in Syria, where on Wednesday security forces launched a ground assault on the besieged city of Homs.
The officials said Thursday the meeting will take place March 7 in the Saudi capital, Riyadh.
Russia and China have twice vetoed U.N. Security Council resolutions that would have condemned the Syrian government for its deadly crackdown on a nearly year-long opposition uprising.
The U.S. State department on Wednesday summoned Syria's senior diplomat in Washington to express “outrage” at the government's month-long bombardment of Homs.
Activists said the fighting Wednesday involved Syria's elite 4th Armored Division and the rebel Free Syrian Army just outside the Baba Amr and al-Inshaat neighborhoods.
A Syrian official vowed that Baba Amr would be “cleansed” within hours. But an activist in the district told VOA via Skype that rebel lines have held.
Kofi Annan, the newly-appointed U.N.-Arab League joint envoy for Syria, said he will soon travel to Syria to push President Bashar al-Assad to engage in dialogue with the opposition.
He said at a joint news conference with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in New York that it is “regrettable” Syria has not granted humanitarian workers access to trapped civilians.
“The first thing we need to do, as the Secretary-General has said, is to do everything we can to stop the violence and the killing to facilitate humanitarian access and ensure that the needy are looked after, and work with the Syrians in coming up with a peaceful solution which respects the aspirations, and eventually stabilize the country.”
The former U.N. chief is due to begin his first visit to the region as a Syria envoy by holding talks with Arab League head Nabil Elaraby in Cairo.
Also Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told a House committee that Mr. Assad is getting help from others in the region.
“There is little doubt that Iran is strongly supporting Assad and his regime. The details about what they are or are not doing, we could provide what we know in a classified session, but you are absolutely right that Iran has a lot invested in Assad and will do whatever it can to keep him in power.”
Syrian rights groups said at least 15 people were killed in violence related to the uprising on Wednesday.
The Baba Amr activist, who uses the pseudonym Abo Emad, told VOA he had witnessed about 16 government soldiers abandon their tanks and defect to the opposition Wednesday. He said rebel sources told him more desertions were taking place as troops enter the city and blend in with the local population.
Abo Emad also said pro-Assad regular troops and Shabiha militiamen were raiding houses in Homs' wealthy al-Inshaat neighborhood, stealing personal effects and setting fire to the targeted homes. VOA cannot independently confirm opposition or government reports.
The U.N. says more than 7,500 people have been killed since the revolt began last March. Syrian officials blame the uprising on foreign-backed armed “terrorists” who, the government says, have killed more than 2,000 security personnel.
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