Pressure mounts on defiant Assad

ANKARA/DAMASCUS: Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday accused his one-time ally Syrian President Bashar Assad of autocratic behavior, saying that such an approach would not serve peace.
"So far, I haven't seen him approach reforms with a democratic understanding. He is still approaching issues with ... an autocratic approach," Erdogan told reporters in televised remarks.
"I believe that it is very hard to achieve peace in Syria as long as this approach continues," he added.
Erdogan's remarks came after Assad praised a May 7 parliamentary election in Syria as the ideal response "to the criminal killers and those who finance them" in his first address to the assembly yesterday.
Erdogan said the election "cannot be considered fair in parliamentary systems in the modern world," pointing to the Syrian opposition boycott.
Turkey, once a strong ally of Syria, broke with Damascus after Assad's regime began cracking down on dissent in March last year.
Last week, Turkey ordered Syrian diplomats at their embassy in Ankara to leave the country following the massacre of more than 100 civilians in Houla which has triggered global outrage.
However, a defiant Assad dismissed accusations his government had any role in the brutal Houla massacre, as he charged forces outside Syria of plotting to destroy the country.
In a rare televised address to Parliament, Assad said even "monsters" were incapable of carrying out massacres such as last month's killings near the town of Houla in central Syria.
At least 108 people, including 49 children and 34 women, were slaughtered in the massacre which started on May 25 and spilled into the next day, triggering international outrage.
Assad's defiant speech came as Arab leaders called on the United Nations to act to stop bloodshed in Syria, and France raised the prospect of military action against Damascus under a UN mandate.
"What happened in Houla and elsewhere are brutal massacres which even monsters would not have carried out," the Syrian leader said.
"The masks have fallen and the international role in the Syrian events is now obvious," he said in his first address to the assembly since a May 7 parliamentary election, adding the polls were the perfect response "to the criminal killers and those who finance them".
Assad also paid tribute to civilian and military "martyrs" of the violence in Syria, saying their blood was not shed in vain.
"We are not facing a political problem but a project to destroy the country," Assad said, adding there would be "no dialogue" with opposition groups which "seek foreign intervention."
"Terrorism cannot be part of the political process," said Assad, who had last spoken in public in January.
In yesterday's speech which lasted more than an hour, he dismissed the impact in Syria of uprisings sweeping the Arab world, saying those demonstrating and fighting against his rule were paid to do so.
"Some are unemployed, they receive money for participating in demonstrations," he said.
On Saturday, violence in Syria killed 89 people, including 57 soldiers, the largest number of casualties the military has suffered in a single day since an uprising began in March 2011, a watchdog said.
As Arab leaders called for UN action, France, which spearheaded a NATO air assault against Libyan President Muammar Qaddafi last year, said it has not excluded military intervention in Syria.
France "has not excluded military intervention" in Syria, but only under a UN mandate, Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said, while urging Russia to drop its backing for Assad.
He said that "the Russians have to understand that the future of Syria is not to be considered" with Assad still in power.
"Until then we have to increase pressure, increase sanctions, mobilize public opinion and isolate (Assad) as much as possible -- and make those who still support him lose interest, and I'm thinking of Russia of course," Le Drian said.
On Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin stood firm against growing pressure over Moscow's position on Syria, opposing foreign military intervention and raising doubts about sanctions.
Human Rights Watch singled out Russian firm Rosoboronexport in a statement that called on the international community to stop signing deals with firms that provide arms to Assad's regime which could make them "an accomplice to crimes against humanity."
Saudi Foreign Minister Saud Al-Faisal accused Assad of "maneuvering" to gain time.
Separately, Lebanese troops deployed in the city of Tripoli yesterday after 15 people were killed in clashes between supporters and opponents of Assad, local medics said, the deadliest fighting in Lebanon since Syria's uprising began.
Residents said relative calm had returned to the Mediterranean city since the soldiers took up positions around the city at around 7 a.m., after gunmen exchanged heavy machinegun fire and rocket-propelled grenades.
Two people wounded in the fighting died on Sunday, adding to the 13 killed on Saturday. Occasional gunfire could still be heard but was less intense than earlier exchanges.
Prime Minister Najib Mikati and other local politicians held a crisis meeting in Tripoli at the weekend and instructed security forces to use an "iron fist" to quell the violence.
Gunmen from the Jebel Mohsen district, home to Tripoli's Alawites, have fought intermittent skirmishes over recent weeks with Sunni fighters in the Bab Al-Tabbaneh area.
The latest clashes began after midnight on Friday and continued throughout Saturday until the army deployment.

FROM: AGENCIES