Annan warns of ‘all-out’ sectarian war in Syria

DHAKA: International peace envoy Kofi Annan warned on Saturday that Syria was slipping into ‘all-out’ war, and a Syrian opposition figure said Russia had become part of the problem and should urge President Bashar Assad to quit power.

‘The specter of an all-out war, with an alarming sectarian dimension, grows by the day’, Annan told a meeting of members of the Arab League, co-sponsor with the United Nations of a peace plan aimed at ending the bloodshed in Syria.

Burhan Ghalioun of the Syrian National Council, the divided body claiming to speak for political opposition to Assad, said, ‘With its support of the regime and for Assad remaining, Russia has become part of the problem rather than part of the solution. If it cooperates to find a formula that makes Assad leave, it will become part of the solution’.

BDST: 1948 HRS, JUN 2, 2012

Edited by Robab Rosan, Cultural Affairs Editor