Syrian official: Will talk to armed rebels

— Syria’s government is willing to hold talks with members of the armed opposition on ending the country’s nearly 2-year-old civil war, the Syrian foreign minister said Monday.

It was the first time that a high-ranking Syrian official signaled that the government was open to talking with Syrian rebels who have taken up weapons against the armed forces. Syria’s president, Bashar Assad, called in January for talks to resolve the conflict, but appeared to rule out dialogue with Syrians who were armed.

Meanwhile, two opposition figures said the main Syrian opposition leader, Sheik Ahmad Moaz al-Khatib, had already met quietly on at least one recent occasion with a prominent Syrian businessman with close ties to Assad, apparently in an effort to explore channels for discussion.

Both sides are under pressure from their international backers to explore ways to end the fighting that threatens to destroy Syria and spread conflict beyond its borders.

Residents of Damascus and state-run TV on Monday reported a large explosion and a series of smaller blasts in the capital, then heavy gunfire.

State-run Syrian Arab News Agency reported there were multiple casualties from the explosion, which it said was a suicide car bombing.

Monday night’s explosion struck about 800 yards from Abbasid Square, a landmark plaza in central Damascus. It was followed by several other smaller blasts thought to be mortar shells landing in various districts of the capital. The blasts and subsequent gunfire caused panic among residents who hid in their apartments.

While the momentum appears to be shifting in the rebels’ direction, the regime’s grip on Damascus remains firm, and Assad’s fall is far from imminent.

Syrian opposition leaders gave conflicting signals Monday on the future of any talks with members of Assad’s government.

The rebels’ top military leader, Gen. Selim Idriss, seemed to harden the opposition’s position, ruling out any negotiations until after Assad steps down - a precondition the Syrian government and its main international backer, Russia, reject. But al-Khatib said his offer to talk with members of the government without “blood on their hands” remained on the table, although he criticized what he called the Syrian government’s slowness to respond.

Russia declared last week that it would work with the Arab League to bring about direct talks between the government and the rebels, and Syria’s foreign minister, Walid al-Moallem, was meeting in Moscow on Monday with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov.

“We are ready for a dialogue with anyone who’s willing,” al-Moallem said ahead of the meetings, Russian news agencies reported. “Even with those who carry arms.”

It was unclear whether the Syrian government would askrebels to lay down arms before such talks. The rebels have said before that they will reject such a precondition.

Idriss, the leader of the Free Syrian Army, the main rebel fighter group, said that to the contrary, a cessation of violence by the government was “the bottom line” for rebels ahead of any talks. In remarks to Al-Arabyia, a Saudi-backed news website, Idriss also said, “There needs to be a clear decision on the resignation of the head of the criminal gang, Bashar Assad, and for those who participated in the killing of the Syrian people to be put on trial.”

The main opposition group, the National Coalition of Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces, led by al-Khatib, had long insisted on Assad’s departure as a precondition for talks, but on Jan. 30, al-Khatib floated the idea of negotiations with members of the government not directly involved inthe bloody crackdown.

On Friday after meetings in Cairo, the coalition adopted a written framework for talks that stopped short of calling for Assad to step down. It called for Assad and others involved in the killing to be “held accountable for their crimes” and declared that they “will not be a part of this political solution.”

But many in the coalition remain skeptical of talks with the government, seeing them as a way for Assad to buy time, and are frustrated that the rebels are under pressure to compromise amid what they see as insufficient international support.

Asked about al-Moallem’s remarks, U.S. State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said the offer of talks was a positive step “in the context of them raining Scuds down on their own civilians.” But heexpressed caution about the seriousness of the offer.

“I don’t know their motivations, other than to say they continue to rain down horrific attacks on their own people,” Ventrell said in Washington. “So that speaks pretty loudly and clearly.”

If the Assad regime is serious, he said, it should inform the U.N. peace envoy, Lakhdar Brahimi of its readiness for talks. Ventrell said the regime hasn’t done that yet.

Also, Walid al-Bunni, a spokesman for the Syrian National Coalition, said Monday that the group has reversed its decision to boycott a Rome meeting between Western and Arab allies after a phone call between al-Khatib and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.

Kerry on Monday urged rebel leaders not to skip the meeting and insisted that more help is on the way.

Kerry made a public plea at a joint news conference with British Foreign Secretary William Hague and also called al-Khatib “to encourage him to come to Rome,” a senior U.S. official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

On Monday, Samir Nachar, a member of the coalition, said that al-Khatib had met in the past week with Muhammad Hamsho, a prominent Syrian businessman who is close to Maher Assad, the president’s brother who leads the army’s feared Fourth Division, and a frontman for many Assad family enterprises.

News of the meeting, which surfaced in the London-based pan-Arab newspaper Asharq al-Awsat, prompted a new round of criticism in some opposition quarters of al-Khatib. The newspaper quoted Faiek al-Meer, a member of the banned opposition Democratic People’s Party, as saying that al-Khatib had met with Hamsho without telling other coalition members.

Nachar said al-Khatib had briefed him and other coalition members on the recent meeting, which he said had been initiated by Hamsho.

“Hamsho asked to meet Moaz al-Khatib and the latter agreed,” Nachar said in an interview. “The meeting did take place, yes. Al-Khatib was straightforward about it ... but he refrained from going into details.”

Al-Khatib said in Cairo that he had not had any contacts with the Syrian government about potential meetings, and did not immediately respond to the offer from the Syrian foreign minister. He said he would postpone a planned visit to Moscow “until we see howthings develop.”

Meanwhile, The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights activist group reported heavy clashes Monday near a police academy in Khan al-Asal just outside Aleppo.

Rebels backed by captured tanks launched an offensive on the facility Sunday. Observatory director Rami Abdul-Rahman said at least 13 rebels and five regime troops were killed.

In another part of Aleppo, rebels downed a military helicopter near the Mennegh airport, where there have been fierce clashes for months.

Information for this article was contributed by Anne Barnard and Hania Mourtada of The New York Times and by Ryan Lucas, Nataliya Vasilyeva, Albert Aji, Zeina Karam, Matthew Lee, Bradley Klapper, Geir Moulson and Cassandra Vinograd of The Associated Press.

Front Section, Pages 4 on 02/26/2013

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