BEIRUT — Moving further from its strict stance of nonintervention, Russia pressured President Bashar Assad of Syria on Monday to be more flexible about the future of his ravaged country, insisting that he talk with adversaries, inviting an anti-Assad delegation to the Kremlin and restricting shipments of new weapons to the Syrian armed forces.
Taken together, the developments appeared to signal that Russia, the Syrian government’s most important foreign backer, may be laying the basis for the option of eventually distancing itself from Assad, who has repeatedly cast the uprising against him as the work of foreign-backed terrorists and has insisted that he enjoys popular support. Assad reiterated those themes in a weekend interview broadcast by a German television network.
The Syrian leader, who has presided over the suppression of an uprising that by some estimates has left as many as 17,000 people dead, has lost much international credibility. His government has been accused by U.N. human rights officials of severe abuses. He has provoked a possible armed confrontation with neighboring Turkey, risked a sectarian spillover in neighboring Lebanon and suffered a rash of high-ranking military defections and desertions, including that of a childhood friend, the son of a former defense minister, last week.
At the same time Assad has sought to portray himself as a willing peace partner. He met Monday with the special representative from the United Nations and Arab League, Kofi Annan, whose peace plan was announced in March but has foundered.
Annan said after the meeting that they had devised a new way to proceed but he did not offer an explanation.
“We discussed the need to end the violence and ways and means of doing so,” Annan told reporters in Damascus, Syria. “We agreed on an approach which I will share with the armed opposition. I also stressed the importance of moving ahead with a political dialogue, which the president accepts.”
Annan then flew to Tehran for talks with Iranian leaders, Assad’s last remaining regional allies.
While Russia has insisted throughout the nearly 17-month-old Syrian uprising that it will block any foreign military intervention there, it has shown increasing impatience with Assad. In recent weeks Russian officials have said they were not wedded to his tenure in power and that the Syrians must decide their own leaders. President Vladimir Putin appeared to sharpen the tone of the Russian message in remarks Monday in Moscow.
“We must do as much as possible to force the conflicting sides to reach a peaceful political solution to all contentious questions,” he said. “We must strive to promote such a dialogue. Of course, this work is much more complex and subtle than intervening by brute force, but only this can provide a long-term settlement and further stable development of the region and of the Syrian state.”
Putin spoke as a delegation of opposition figures representing the Syrian National Council, the main anti-Assad umbrella group, traveled to Moscow at the invitation of the Foreign Ministry. Delegation leaders, who have insisted that Assad cannot be part of any political transition in Syria, described the visit as exploratory, to test Russia’s willingness to be more accommodating. They were scheduled to meet with Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, on Wednesday.
“The Russians should know that the regime has now become a threat not just to Syria but also a threat to the security of the region, and we have started seeing that in Lebanon and Turkey,” said George Sabra, a member of the delegation who represents Syria’s Christian community.
“Of course, the main headline of this visit is to prepare for what is next. Why would the Russians want to meet with the opposition? Why would they want to build new relations? There are preparations for a new era,” Sabra said.
Taken together, the developments appeared to signal that Russia, the Syrian government’s most important foreign backer, may be laying the basis for the option of eventually distancing itself from Assad, who has repeatedly cast the uprising against him as the work of foreign-backed terrorists and has insisted that he enjoys popular support. Assad reiterated those themes in a weekend interview broadcast by a German television network.
The Syrian leader, who has presided over the suppression of an uprising that by some estimates has left as many as 17,000 people dead, has lost much international credibility. His government has been accused by U.N. human rights officials of severe abuses. He has provoked a possible armed confrontation with neighboring Turkey, risked a sectarian spillover in neighboring Lebanon and suffered a rash of high-ranking military defections and desertions, including that of a childhood friend, the son of a former defense minister, last week.
At the same time Assad has sought to portray himself as a willing peace partner. He met Monday with the special representative from the United Nations and Arab League, Kofi Annan, whose peace plan was announced in March but has foundered.
Annan said after the meeting that they had devised a new way to proceed but he did not offer an explanation.
“We discussed the need to end the violence and ways and means of doing so,” Annan told reporters in Damascus, Syria. “We agreed on an approach which I will share with the armed opposition. I also stressed the importance of moving ahead with a political dialogue, which the president accepts.”
Annan then flew to Tehran for talks with Iranian leaders, Assad’s last remaining regional allies.
While Russia has insisted throughout the nearly 17-month-old Syrian uprising that it will block any foreign military intervention there, it has shown increasing impatience with Assad. In recent weeks Russian officials have said they were not wedded to his tenure in power and that the Syrians must decide their own leaders. President Vladimir Putin appeared to sharpen the tone of the Russian message in remarks Monday in Moscow.
“We must do as much as possible to force the conflicting sides to reach a peaceful political solution to all contentious questions,” he said. “We must strive to promote such a dialogue. Of course, this work is much more complex and subtle than intervening by brute force, but only this can provide a long-term settlement and further stable development of the region and of the Syrian state.”
Putin spoke as a delegation of opposition figures representing the Syrian National Council, the main anti-Assad umbrella group, traveled to Moscow at the invitation of the Foreign Ministry. Delegation leaders, who have insisted that Assad cannot be part of any political transition in Syria, described the visit as exploratory, to test Russia’s willingness to be more accommodating. They were scheduled to meet with Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, on Wednesday.
“The Russians should know that the regime has now become a threat not just to Syria but also a threat to the security of the region, and we have started seeing that in Lebanon and Turkey,” said George Sabra, a member of the delegation who represents Syria’s Christian community.
“Of course, the main headline of this visit is to prepare for what is next. Why would the Russians want to meet with the opposition? Why would they want to build new relations? There are preparations for a new era,” Sabra said.
