June 18, 2013 -- Updated 1829 GMT (0229 HKT)
The Group of Eight leaders meeting in Northern Ireland on Tuesday called
for an international conference on the ongoing crisis in Syria to be
held "as soon as possible" but offered little new that might end the
civil war there. FULL STORY
June 18, 2013 -- Updated 2013 GMT (0413 HKT)
'Presidency to be decided by Syrians'
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NEW: Differences remain between the U.S. and Russia, an official says
- "There is no proof" that Damascus has used chemical weapons, Vladimir Putin says
- G8 leaders call for international conference but offer little new to end crisis
- "Reconciliation minister" says all of the Syrian government should be up for negotiation
In their final statement,
the G8 leaders said peace is a shared goal, noted that Jordan and
Lebanon are playing a "vital humanitarian role" on refugees and vowed to
give nearly $1.5 billion more to meet the humanitarian needs of Syria
and its neighbors.
The leaders also expressed concern about the presence of al Qaeda and other extremist elements in Syria.
Though the statement
condemned "any use of chemical weapons" and asked for an international
team to be allowed to investigate their possible use, it did not say
whether such weapons have been used. Nor did it mention Syrian President
Bashar al-Assad.
For his part, Russian
President Vladimir Putin said that he had seen no proof that the Syrian
regime has used chemical weapons and that he was not alone. "Not all of
the G8 members take the view that the chemical weapons were in fact used
by the Syrian army," he said. "Some actually agreed with us that there
is no proof."
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On front line with al-Assad fighters
He called the discussion on Syria "good" despite disagreements.
"The bloodshed has to be
stopped, and this will be called for," he told reporters. "This can be
achieved only by political and diplomatic means."
Putin implied that
shipments of Russian arms to al-Assad regime's could continue. "This is
the legal government of Syria, the government of Assad," he said. "There
is no other legal government of Syria so far, and we're fulfilling our
legal contracts."
He warned his "European
partners" that the arming of rebels could prove dangerous. "Who is going
to control and verify who is going to have these weapons?" he asked.
"So, we call all our partners -- before making this dangerous step --
think about it very carefully."
In his remarks, U.S.
President Barack Obama told reporters that the U.S. and French
governments have evidence that al-Assad has used chemical weapons "in
the past."
Obama said he and French
President Francois Hollande agreed that it is important to "move to a
political transition in Syria, to build a strong opposition to function
in a post-Assad world."
U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jennifer Psaki acknowledged that differences remain between the United States and Russia.
"There is still a
disagreement, as we all know, that we have with the Russians on some
issues, but having an international body like the G8 signify that they
agree on the path forward, we felt is significant," she told reporters
during a briefing on Tuesday.
But al-Assad's
government offered no indication Tuesday that it was going anywhere.
Al-Assad's appointee to the newly created post of minister of national
reconciliation, Ali Haidar, told CNN's Frederik Pleitgen in an exclusive
interview that he believes Syrians can still unite for a political
solution at the Geneva, Switzerland, conference, for which no firm date
has been set.
"The best compromise
that we can achieve today is that the regime and ... the homeland
peaceful opposition agree to the negotiating table without any
preconditions, without excluding anybody from the opposition -- which
means everything is subject to discussion," Haidar said.
And that includes the presidency.
"The office of the
president is a matter related to the whole political structure of the
country ... and we believe the shape and structure should be discussed
among Syrians and should be decided by the Syrians in a referendum
because only the Syrian people can decide what happens."
Preconditions have been a
sticking point, with members of the opposition saying they won't
negotiate with the regime unless al-Assad steps down from four decades
of family rule. Similarly, the government has said it won't deal with
"terrorists" -- a term it uses to describe rebels.
The death toll has reached 92,000, a figure growing by about 5,000 people a month, according to the United Nations.
"The military problems
on the ground only deal with the problem of violence. It does not
resolve the political crisis," Haidar said. He said the only solution is
a political one, not a military one.
Haidar's comments came
days after the United States announced it will start arming Syrian
rebels, who have sought more weapons to fight al-Assad's better-equipped
military. The Obama administration said Syria's government had crossed a
"red line" by using chemical weapons -- including sarin gas -- against
the opposition.
But Haidar disputed those assertions, which have also been made by Britain and France.
"The talk about chemical
weapons is only for political reasons," Haidar said. "So far, no one
has proved anything about who used them and where they were used, and
who was behind using the chemical weapons."
But with a precondition
of having no preconditions for a political dialogue, it's unclear if or
when "national reconciliation" will take place.
West of Syria, in
Beirut, Lebanon, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres
expressed alarm Tuesday over the growing number of refugees in Lebanon.
A possible spillover of
the Syrian crisis into neighboring countries must be addressed "to
prevent the flames of war from spreading across the Middle East,"
Guterres said, according to a UNHCR statement.
Guterres and Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati appealed to international donors for $1.7 billion in aid.
The number of Syrians fleeing to Lebanon is projected to exceed 1 million by the end of the year.
"There is not a village, city or town in Lebanon that is not hosting Syrian refugees," Guterres told reporters in Beirut.
"The international
community must overcome its divisions and come together to stop the
fighting if we want to prevent the flames of war from spreading across
the Middle East," Guterres said.
Iran's semiofficial news
agency Mehr reported Tuesday that a Foreign Ministry spokesman has
denied a report first published Sunday in British newspaper The Independent that Iran has decided to send 4,000 troops to support Syria's government.
"These news media
reports are pure lies and unrealistic fabrications," said Abbas Araqchi,
the spokesman. "Iran has never and will never send Iranian forces to
Damascus."
U.S. officials and Syrian opposition fighters say they have intelligence that Iranian forces are in Syria.
CNN's Frederik Pleitgen reported from
Damascus; Holly Yan and Tom Watkins reported and wrote from Atlanta; and
Jill Dougherty reported from Washington.
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- COPY http://edition.cnn.com/
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