Kofi Annan warned on Tuesday that Syria's deadly conflict could spread across the region as he held talks in Iran and Iraq aimed at shoring up support for his tattered peace plan.
A day after meeting President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus, the UN-Arab League peace envoy had talks in Tehran and Baghdad amid new bloodshed in Syria where more than 17,000 people have reportedly been killed since March 2011.
In Tehran he stressed that the Islamic republic, Syria's staunchest regional ally, has a key role to play, and also sought help from Iraq, another neighbour of Syria.
"Iran can play a positive role," Annan said after meeting Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi.
"There is a risk that the situation in Syria gets out of hand and spreads to the region," Annan told a joint news conference with Salehi, who hailed the envoy's "neutrality" and reiterated Iranian support for his mission.
Annan then flew to Baghdad where, he said, he had "very good discussions" with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Syria and later told reporters he would brief the UN Security Council on Wednesday.
"And I'm sure the council will take appropriate action, including the future of UNSMIS, the monitors on the ground, as their mandate comes up on the 21st of July," Annan said of unarmed UN observers deployed in Syria.
The 300-strong UN Supervision Mission in Syria was suspended in mid-June because of intense violence.
The former UN chief's Middle East trip follows a meeting of world powers in Geneva late last month -- to which Iran was not invited -- to salvage his peace initiative.
A plan was agreed in Geneva for a political transition in Syria, which did not make an explicit call for Assad to quit, although the West and the opposition made clear they saw no role for him in a unity government.
After meeting Assad on Monday, the former UN chief said he had agreed with him on a new political "approach" to ending the crisis in Syria that he would put to the rebels.
"We discussed the need to end the violence and ways and means of doing so. We agreed an approach which I will share with the armed opposition," he said.
Deadly violence showed no sign no abating on Tuesday.
The army rained shells down on the rebel-held central town of Rastan as violence killed at least 16 people nationwide, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
"We have many wounded, and there are no doctors here, only two dentists. We can't do anything for the wounded. It's tragic," an activist in Rastan told AFP via Skype.
Of those killed on Tuesday, eight were civilians, four were soldiers and four were rebels, the Observatory said, noting that 98 people were killed on Monday, including 34 soldiers.
Russia said on Tuesday that it wanted to host a new meeting of foreign powers on the Syria crisis but stressed that the talks should not decide Assad's fate.
Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov also said the attempt in Geneva to save Annan's peace plan needed to be continued with the involvement of countries such as Iran, which both Washington and European powers strongly oppose.
But the opposition Syrian National Council (SNC) said its priority was to "work for the fall of the Assad regime and all its symbols," insisting there could be no political transition until the embattled president's departure.
The opposition coalition's new leader, Abdel Basset Sayda, is due in Moscow on Wednesday at the foreign ministry's invitation, the SNC said.
Annan admitted in remarks published by French newspaper Le Monde ahead of his Damascus trip that his peace blueprint has so far foundered.
He has previously expressed frustration that while Moscow and Iran are mentioned by some as stumbling blocks to peace, "little is said about other countries which send arms, money, and have a presence on the ground."
Russia is sending a flotilla of six warships to its naval base at Syria's port of Tartus, the Interfax news agency reported on Tuesday, citing a military source.
The source said the flotilla's deployment would last until the end of September and "was not linked to the escalation of the situation in Syria."
Moscow arms export officials said on Monday that Russia will not supply new weapons to Syria while fighting there continues, while stressing that old contracts would be fulfilled.
Lebanon, meanwhile, began reinforcing its border with Syria following a series of deadly attacks, a military spokesman said in Beirut on Tuesday.
Syrian troops and armed men traded gunfire overnight in the border area and shells fell inside Lebanon, wounding civilians, the army said, just two days after border clashes killed two girls.
Syrian state news agency SANA confirmed the violence and said troops foiled attempts by "armed terrorist groups" to infiltrate from Lebanon during the night.
Meanwhile in Jordan, the international aid group Medecins du Monde (Doctors of the World) announced it will open a medical centre on Sunday in the border town of Ramtha to help treat tens of thousands of Syrian refugees.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/annan-syria-hoping-save-peace-plan-164324248.html
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