Cameron: Putin no longer wants Assad in power

Russian President Vladimir Putin made it clear during the G-20 summit in Mexico that he does not want President Bashar Assad to remain in power in Syria, British Prime Minister David Cameron said Tuesday. “There remain differences over sequencing and the shape of how the transition takes place but it is welcome that President Putin has been explicit that he does not want Assad remaining in charge in Syria,” he told reporters. “What we need next is an agreement on a transitional leadership which can move Syria to a democratic future that protects the rights of all its communities,” Cameron added. For his part, Putin said Tuesday Russia believes Syrians themselves should decide Assad’s fate, adding that Western countries were not against this position despite differences. Cameron said he had discussed the issue at the G-20 summit with U.S. President Barack Obama, Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande and Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan. Meanwhile, the chief U.N. monitor for Syria told the Security Council Tuesday that his military observers were repeatedly targeted by hostile crowds and gunfire at close range last week before his decision to suspend operations, U.N. diplomats said. General Robert Mood of Norway told the 15-nation council behind closed doors that his 300-strong unarmed observer force was targeted with gunfire or by hostile crowds at least 10 times last week, U.N. diplomats present at the meeting told Reuters on condition of anonymity. Mood said that “indirect fire” incidents in which gunfire struck within 300-400 meters of observers occurred on a daily basis, envoys said. Last week nine vehicles of the observer mission, known as UNSMIS, were struck or damaged, they added. One diplomat said Mood spoke of “several hundred indirect fire incidents.” U.N. peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous also addressed the council and emphasized that the situation on the ground was too dangerous to allow the monitors to conduct normal patrols. “Mood and Ladsous basically said that violence is escalating and that conditions are not met at present to allow the mission to run normally [and] safely enough,” a diplomat said. Some Western diplomats have suggested that there was little point in having UNSMIS remain in Syria when Assad’s government has not only ignored former U.N. chief Annan’s peace plan but has stepped up its military assaults to seize rebel-held territory. By the time The Daily Star went to press, it was still unclear whether the Security Council has decided to extend UNSMIS’ 90-day mandate, which expires on July 21. Troops pounded and raided rebel strongholds across Syria and clashes erupted in Homs Tuesday as 36 people were killed in violence nationwide, The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. A commander of the Free Syrian Army from Baba Amr said the situation was “very tough” in the district of Homs.