President Assad Receives Ibrahaimi, Calls for Dialogue

President Bashar al-Assad received on Saturday the Un envoy al-Akhdar al-Ibrahimi, as he called for dialogue and voiced Damascus commitment to efforts aimed at solving the ongoing crisis.

“The real problem in Syria is that of combining politics with the work being done on the ground,” said President Assad.

“The political work continues, in particular by calling for dialogue between Syrians based on the aspirations of all Syrians.”

“The success of political action is dependent on putting pressure on the countries that finance and train the terrorists, and which bring weapons into Syria, until they stop doing so,” he added.

Assad said his government would “cooperate with all sincere efforts to solve the crisis, so long as the efforts are neutral and independent.”

For his part, Ibrahimi said the crisis in Syria was dangerous but vowed to make great effort to make progress.

“The crisis is dangerous and getting worse and it is a threat to the Syrian people, the region and the world,” said the veteran Algerian diplomat, who took over as envoy earlier this month from former UN chief Kofi Annan.

“We will make a great effort to make progress, and do our best … to help the Syrian people,” he said, a day after he held talks with Foreign Minister Walid Muallem and members of the officially tolerated opposition.

“The Syrian government has promised to help the (envoy’s) office in Damascus to do its work well,” said Ibrahimi, referring to a political office headed by diplomat Mokhtar Lamani.

Brahimi is on his first Damascus visit since his appointment to replace Annan who quit the post after his six-point peace plan lacked international support.