(Reuters) - Rebels fighting to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad declared
Damascus International Airport a battle zone on Friday, while Moscow and
Washington both sounded downbeat about the prospects of a diplomatic push to end
the conflict.
Fighting around the capital city has intensified over the past week, and
Western officials have begun speaking about faster change on the ground in a
20-month-old conflict that has killed 40,000 people.
But Russia and the
United States, the superpowers that have backed the opposing sides in the
conflict, both played down the chance of a diplomatic breakthrough after talks
aimed at resolving their differences.
"I don't think anyone believes that there was some great breakthrough," U.S.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said of a meeting with Russia's Foreign
Minister Sergei Lavrov and international mediator Lakhdar Brahimi.
"No one should have any illusions about how hard this remains. But all of us,
with any influence, need to be engaged with Brahimi for a concerted, sincere
push."
Lavrov said the sides had agreed to send officials to another meeting with
Brahimi, but also sounded a skeptical note.
"I would not make optimistic predictions ... It remains to be seen what will
come out of this," he added, noting that Brahimi knows the chance of success is
"far from 100 percent".
Rebels, meeting in Turkey in the presence of
Western security officials, elected a 30-member unified military command, giving
prominent posts to Islamists and excluding some senior officers who defected
from Assad's army.
Washington and its NATO allies want to see Assad removed from power. Moscow
has blocked action against him at the U.N. Security Council, and while outsiders
repeatedly point to signs of Russia losing patience with him, its stance has not
changed.
The past week has brought a war previously fought mainly in the provinces and
other cities to the threshold of the capital.
Cutting access to the airport 20 km (12 miles) from the city center would be
a symbolic blow. The rebels acknowledge the airport itself is still in army
hands, but say they are blockading it from most sides.
"The rebel brigades who have been putting the airport under siege decided
yesterday that the airport is a military zone," said Nabil al-Amir, a spokesman
for the rebels' Damascus Military Council.
"Civilians who approach it now do so at their own risk," he said. Fighters
had "waited two weeks for the airport to be emptied of most civilians and
airlines" before declaring it a target, he added.
He did not say what they would do if aircraft tried to land. Foreign airlines
have suspended all flights to Damascus since fighting has approached the airport
in the past week, although some Syrian Air flights have used the airport in
recent days.
Syria says the army is driving
rebels back from positions in the suburbs and outskirts of Damascus where they
have tried to concentrate their offensive. Accounts from rebels and the
government are impossible to verify on the ground.
"SOME FIGHT LEFT IN THEM"
Although Western opponents of Assad believe events are tipping against him,
they also acknowledge that the war is still far from over.
"It's very clear to me that the regime's forces are being ground down," U.S.
ambassador to Syria Robert Ford, withdrawn last year, was quoted as saying by
CNN. "That said, the regime's protection units continue to maintain some
cohesion, and they still have some fight left in them, even though they are
losing. I expect there will be substantial fighting in the days ahead."
Rami Abdelrahman, of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has
tracked the fighting since it began in March 2011, said: "I think it's
unrealistic to expect that the battle is in its last stages right now."
The meeting of rebels in Antalya, Turkey, was aimed at forming a structure to
run the conflict in conjunction with a new opposition National Coalition, which
some European and Arab states have recognized as Syria's legitimate
representatives.
One delegate at the meeting, who asked not to be identified, said two-thirds
of the 30 members of the newly named command had ties with the Muslim
Brotherhood or were its political allies.
"We are witnessing the result of the Qatari and Turkish creations," said the
delegate, referring to leading anti-Assad countries that are seen as backing the
Brotherhood.
Colonel Riad Asaad, founder of the Syrian Free Army rebel force, and General
Hussein Haj Ali, the highest-ranking officer to defect from Assad's military,
were among those excluded.
NATO decided this week to send U.S., German and Dutch batteries of
air-defense missiles to the Turkish border, putting hundreds of American and
European NATO troops close to the frontier with Syria for the first time in the
crisis.
Russia's ambassador to NATO said the move risked dragging the alliance into
the conflict.
"This is not a threat to us, but this is an indication that NATO is moving
toward engagement, and that's it," Alexander Grushko said. "We see a threat of
further involvement of NATO in the Syrian situation as a result of some
provocation or some incidents on the border, if they take place.
The Dutch on Friday said they would send two Patriot batteries with up to 360
personnel. Germany approved its mission on
Thursday.
The United States and its NATO allies have issued coordinated warnings in
recent days to Assad not to use chemical weapons, prompting Syria to accuse
Western countries of conjuring the threat to justify a military
intervention.
Syria has not signed an international chemical weapons treaty banning poison
gas, but has repeatedly said that it would never use such weapons on its own
people.
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said: "We have no confirmed
reports on this matter. However, if it is the case, then it will be an
outrageous crime in the name of humanity."
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