Damascus will reject any initiative stemming from this week’s Arab League summit to end the year-long crisis in Syria, a foreign ministry spokesman said on Wednesday.
“Syria will not cooperate with any Arab League initiative at any level,” spokesman Jihad Makdissi said in a statement to AFP.
“Since its suspension from the Arab League, Syria has been dealing with member states on a bilateral level,” he added.
The 22-member pan-Arab body in November voted at an extraordinary meeting to suspend Syria until President Bashar al-Assad implements an Arab deal to end a crackdown on a revolt which, according to UN figures, has left more than 9,000 people dead since March of last year.
Arab foreign ministers were meeting in Baghdad on Wednesday, on the eve of the landmark summit, to debate a draft resolution calling on Damascus to end the violence and hold talks with the opposition.
Makdissi in his statement made no reference to UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan’s six-point peace plan, which Annan’s camp said had been accepted by President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
Meanwhile, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has urged Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to “immediately” implement the UN six-point plan to stop bloodshed in Syria.
“I urge President al-Assad to put commitments into immediate effect. There is no time to waste,” Ban told a news conference in Kuwait.
Ban expressed concern at the continued bloodshed in Syria but welcomed the Damascus regimes’ acceptance of the six-point plan put forward by the UN and Arab League special envoy Kofi Annan.
“This is an important initial step that could bring an end to the bloodshed and violence,” he said.
Ban said that he will “meet key (Arab) leaders in Baghdad to discuss how the UN and Arab League states can work together in helping the joint special envoy’s diplomatic efforts to get the six-point proposal implemented.”
Annan said on Tuesday that the government of Assad had accepted his plan, a move cautiously welcomed by Western nations.
Syrian forces backed by tanks stormed the central town of Qalaat al-Madiq and nearby villages on Wednesday after a siege lasting more than two weeks, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The army also attempted to storm other rebel positions in various regions across the country, including in northwest Idlib, in central Homs and in the southern province of Daraa, the Britain-based monitoring group.
It said troops entered the town of Qalaat al-Madiq, in Hama province, just after dawn following a 17-day barrage of shelling and heavy gunfire to root out rebels. The army, however, was not in full control of the town.
“Heavy clashes between regime forces and armed rebels are preventing the army from advancing,” the Observatory said. “Intense gunfire and explosions can be heard in nearby villages.”
Abu Ghazi, a local activist reached by Skype, told AFP in Beirut that members of the rebel Free Syrian Army had withdrawn from the area because of the regular army’s superior firepower.
“The rebels were engaged in hit-and-run operations and were trying to protect the local population and delay the storming of the town,” he said.
Qalaat al-Madiq is home to a historic castle that was shelled during the fighting, as seen in videos posted on YouTube.
Fierce clashes were also reported on Wednesday in the province of Daraa, cradle of the year-long revolt that has left more than 9,000 people dead according to the United Nations.
In central Homs province, three soldiers were killed and 16 others were wounded in fighting with rebels in the town of Rastan, it added.
“Heavy clashes took place at the entrance of the town which the army tried to storm at dawn,” the Observatory said.
One person was killed by sniper fire in another neighbourhood of the city, the Observatory said.
