* Brahimi told to tackle Qataris, Saudis, Turkey, West
* Syrian information minister lambastes Egypt’s Mursi
BEIRUT, Sept 3 (Reuters) – Syria said on Monday new
U.N.-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi could only make headway
if outside countries ceased helping rebels opposed to President
Bashar al-Assad and instead declared support for a U.N.-backed
peace plan.
Brahimi, a veteran Algerian diplomat, has picked up the
baton from former U.N. chief Kofi Annan, who drew up the
six-point plan for Syria, but a ceasefire he declared on April
12 failed to take hold. Violence has worsened since then.
“The conditions for success for Lakhdar Brahimi in his
mission is for specific countries – Qatar, Saudi Arabia and
Turkey – to announce their commitment to the six-point plan and
completely stop sending weapons (to rebels) and close borders to
fighters and close fighter training camps,” Syrian Information
Minister Omran Zoabi told a news conference in Damascus.
“The ball is not in the Syrian court, the ball is in the
Saudi, Qatari, Turkish, European and U.S. court,” he said.
Damascus verbally accepted Annan’s plan in April, but failed
to implement its main call for an end to violence and a pullout
of Syrian troops and heavy weapons from towns and cities.
Syria has long accused Saudi Arabia and Qatar of supporting
rebels during the 17-month-old anti-Assad uprising and says
neighbouring Turkey allows fighters to train on its soil.
Brahimi told the BBC in an interview broadcast on Monday
that diplomatic attempts to end the conflict were “nearly
impossible.”
Annan, his predecessor, resigned as U.N.-Arab League envoy
to Syria last month after blaming “finger-pointing and
name-calling” at the U.N. Security Council for hampering his
efforts.
More than 20,000 people have been killed in Syria since
protests against Assad’s rule first erupted in March 2011.
Zoabi also took aim at newly elected Egyptian President
Mohamed Mursi, who said last week that solidarity with the
Syrian people “against an oppressive regime that has lost its
legitimacy is an ethical duty” and a strategic necessity.
“After (President Hosni) Mubarak fled and his place was
filled with another president, the only difference between him
and Mubarak was his beard,” Zoabi said, adding that Mursi was
supporting Israel and had not helped the Palestinian cause.
“Spilt Syrian blood is the responsibility of Mohamed Mursi
and those like him because he sends weapons and money and
(provides) political support (to the rebels).”
(Reporting by Dominic Evans and Oliver Holmes; Editing by
Alistair Lyon)
