DAMASCUS, Syria — Russia and the Arab League proposed Wednesday to broker talks between the Syrian opposition and President Bashar Assad’s regime to try to resolve the country’s civil war, while a government airstrike on a Damascus suburb killed at least 20 people.
The combatants in the 23-month-old conflict in Syria, which reportedly has killed more than 70,000 people and laid waste to the country’s cities, have repeatedly defied international efforts to end the bloodshed. Wednesday’s offer from Moscow, one ofAssad’s closest allies, suggested the regime could be warming to the idea of a settlement as it struggles to hold territory and claw back lost ground.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the Kremlin and the Arab League are attempting to establish direct contact between the Syrian regime and the opposition. Negotiation is the only way to end the conflict without irreparably damaging Syria, he said.
“Neither side can allow itself to rely on a military solution to the conflict, because it’s a road to nowhere, a road to mutual destruction of thepeople,” Lavrov said in Moscow, where he hosted league officials and several Arab foreign ministers.
Lavrov and Arab League General Secretary Nabil Elaraby said their main priority is to create a transitional government in Syria to navigate a way out of the conflict.
No conditions for the Syrian negotiations have been set. Lavrov said both sides’ readiness to talk is “the most important thing.”
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem will lead a delegation Monday to Moscow, and Russia is expecting a visit in March from Mouaz al-Khatib, leader of the opposition Syrian National Coalition.
Al-Khatib has said he is open to talks with the regime that could pave the way for Assad’s departure, but thatthe Syrian leader must first release tens of thousands of detainees. The government has refused.
The opposition reacted coolly to Russia’s proposal.
“We cannot agree to that,” said Abdelbaset Sieda, a senior member of the Syrian National Coalition. “Assad and his group must go first. After that, we can discuss with others in the regime who didn’t share in the killing of our people.”
Still, Wednesday’s proposal was notable because it emanated from Russia - Assad’s chief advocate on the international stage. It is unlikely that Moscow would publicly propose to host talkswithout having first secured Damascus’ word that it would indeed sit down with the opposition.
Meanwhile, an air raid Wednesday hit the Damascus suburb of Hamouriyeh, killing at least 20 people, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. More people were believed to be buried under the debris.
Another activist group, the Local Coordination Committees, put the death toll higher, saying up to 35 were killed and dozens more were wounded.
Earlier Wednesday, two mortar rounds crashed into a sports complex in the normally calm neighborhood of Baramkeh in central Damascus, killing one soccer playerand wounding three more.
The mortar attack was the second in as many days in Damascus. On Tuesday, two mortar rounds exploded near one of Assad’s palaces, but no one was hurt.
The state news agency said the mortar fire that hit a complex that houses Tishrin Stadium and a hotel killed Youssef Suleiman from al-Wathbah club based in Homs. The athlete was wounded inside the hotel as players were preparing for practice and died later at a hospital.
Elsewhere on Wednesday, Lebanon’s state-run news agency said three people, including a former Cabinet minister and a top Syrian intelligence general, have been indicted in a bombing plot in Lebanon.
The National News Agency said a military investigative judge, Riad Abu Ghaida, demanded the death penalty for former Information Minister Michel Samaha, Syrian Brig. Gen. Ali Mamlouk and aSyrian colonel who was identified only by his first name, Adnan.
Mamlouk was accused Wednesday of assisting Samaha in plotting a wave ofattacks in Lebanon at the behest of Syria.
Meanwhile, Syrian rebel army chief Gen. Salim Idriss told Al-Arabiya TV that if the Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah does not end its involvement in Syrian towns near the border, “the Free Syrian Army will pound Hezbollah’s positions with all the weapons it has.”
Syrian activists have said Hezbollah fighters clashed with rebels in Sunni and Shiite villages just inside Syria over the weekend.
A local Lebanese official in Hermel, near the border, said Hezbollah fighters had entered Syria to protect the Shiite villages. Two of them were killed, he said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss Hezbollah matters.
Information for this article was contributed by Barbara Surk and Bassem Mroue of The Associated Press.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 02/21/2013