Summary

Here’s a summary of the latest developments:

Syria

• UN war crimes investigators have asked to meet president Assad to seek access to Syria. Syrian foreign ministry has written to the UN agencies calling on them to “expose the crimes of the armed terrorist groups, condemn them and hold these groups to account”.

• The Syria’s government is due to announce whether it plans to observe a four-day ceasfire over Eid al-Adha proposed by the international envoy Lakhdar Brahimi. The Assad government has indicated that it will back the initiative, but rebel leaders said they don’t trust the regime to comply. The UN security council urged both sides to back the idea, and added that here was a particular onus on the government “as the stronger party” to respond positively.

• The US has expressed its doubts about the prospects for even a temporary truce. Susan Rice US ambassador to the UN, tweeted: “Many are duly sceptical about prospects for even a temporary ceasefire, given Assad’s record of broken promises.” Britain’s ambassador to the UN, Mark Lyall Grant, noted that the Syrian government had yet to confirm whether it would back the ceasefire a day before it was due to start. 

• Continued fighting has been reported in Damascus and Aleppo ahead of the proposed start of the ceasefire. Assad’s forces have fired tank and rocket barrages at a Damascus suburb killing five people, Reuters reports citing activists said.

• The US has denied Russian claims that it is supplying Stinger missiles to Syrian rebels. Russia’s top military officer, Nikolai Makarov, said Russia’s military had learned that rebel forces “have portable missile launchers of various states, including American-made Stingers.” US Defence secretary Leon Panetta told reporters at the Pentagon that “I certainly don’t know of us providing any such missiles in that area.”