Brahimi meets Assad, calls for peace

Peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi yesterday appealed to both sides in Syria's conflict to cease fire for a Muslim holiday this week after meeting President Bashar al-Assad, even as a deadly blast rocked Damascus.
Meanwhile, Lebanese police used tear gas yesterday to repel demonstrators trying to storm the Serail, the headquarters of Prime Minister Najib Mikati, amid calls for him to resign, an AFP reporter witnessed.
The clashes broke out following the funeral nearby of slain police intelligence chief General Wissam al-Hassan, an opponent of the Syrian regime.
During funeral orations, angry former premier Fuad Siniora called on Prime Minister Mikati to resign, adding his voice to many others since Hassan was killed in a car bombing on Friday.
The opposition has widely accused Syrian President Bashar al-Assad of being behind the attack, which killed two other people and wounded 126.
In Damascus, a bomb exploded outside a police station in a Christian quarter of the Old City, killing 13 people and wounding many others, officials and state media said.
The bombing came as UN-Arab League envoy Brahimi, after holding talks with Assad, called for "unilateral" ceasefires by the regime and the rebels for the Eid al-Adha holidays that starts on Friday.
"I appeal to everyone to take a unilateral decision to cease hostilities on the occasion of Eid al-Adha and that this truce be respected from today or tomorrow," he said.
The UN-Arab League envoy told reporters that the ceasefire call was his "personal initiative, not a blueprint for peace."
Brahimi added he had contacted political opposition leaders inside and outside Syria and armed groups in the country. "We found them to be very favourable" to the idea of a truce, he said, in a cautious note of optimism.
Assad, in the meeting with Brahimi, said he was "open to all sincere efforts to find a peaceful solution to the crisis on the basis of a rejection of any foreign interference," state news agency SANA reported.
On the ground, clashes were reported yesterday in several parts of Syria, including Damascus province and the northern city of Aleppo, a key battleground for the past three months.
The Britain-based Observatory said 130 people died in violence across the country yesterday, adding to its estimated toll of more than 34,000 killed since March 2011.