REUTERS

Syria's President Bashar al-Assad. Picture: Reuters/Benoit Tessier

Amman/Beirut: Syrian opposition leaders and the West have scorned a new offer by President Bashar al-Assad to hold multi-party elections, as his troops mounted more attacks on rebel-held areas.

Assad promised a referendum in two weeks’ time on a new constitution leading to elections within 90 days, but made clear he still planned to crush the uprising against him by force.

The military unleashed a new offensive in Hama, a city with a bloody history of resistance to Assad’s late father Hafez al-Assad, firing at residential neighbourhoods with anti-aircraft guns mounted on armoured vehicles.

Artillery shelled parts of Homs for the 13th day in a row.

France said it was negotiating a new UN Security Council resolution on Syria with Russia, Assad’s ally and main arms supplier, and wanted to create humanitarian corridors to ease the plight of civilians.

“The idea of humanitarian corridors that I previously proposed to allow NGOs to reach the zones where there are scandalous massacres should be discussed at the Security Council,” Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said.

He said a UN General Assembly vote today on a non-binding resolution on Syria would be “symbolic”. It follows a February 4 veto by Russia and China of a draft Security Council resolution that backed an Arab League call for Assad to quit. – Reuters