Assad proposes gradual steps to end Syria violence

Source: Reuters

- Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has suggested ending Syria's conflict on a step-by-step basis, starting with districts that have seen the worst violence, international mediator Kofi Annan told a press conference in Tehran on Tuesday.

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He said Assad had suggested "building an approach from the ground up in some of the districts where we have extreme violence - to try and contain the violence in those districts and, step by step, build up and end the violence across the country".

Annan, who represents the United Nations and the Arab League, said he needed to discuss the proposal with the Syrian opposition and could not give further details.

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Meanwhile Syria's major ally Russia proposed what sounded like an alternative to the Western-backed, anti-Assad "Friends of Syria" forum, with an offer to visiting Syrian opposition groups to host regular meetings of Annan's "action group" of countries, which is more balanced between pro- and anti-Assad influences.



Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/10/us-syria-crisis-idUSBRE8610SH20120710