Iran's foreign minister offers to host Syria crisis talks

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi has suggested that his country could host talks between the Syrian government and the opposition.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran is ready to have meetings with Syrian dissidents in order to facilitate talks between government and Syrian dissidents," said Salehi on Sunday, was quoted as saying by Fars News Agency.

“We believe that the crisis in Syria should be solved through a Syria-Syria solution and nothing should be imposed from outside and no government should be imposed on Syrians affairs from outside,” Salehi added

Salehi told reporters in Tehran that it was very important to find a solution to the Syrian crisis. In addition, he expressed the hope that this crisis could be resolved through cooperation between the countries of the region without interference of the Western countries and their allies in the region.

International mediator Kofi Annan said last week that Iran could play a positive role in resolving the Syrian crisis. Iran, a close ally of the Syrian regime.

In another attempt to resolve the crisis, the Kremlin press service reported on Sunday that on July 17, Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet international envoy to Syria, Kofi Annan in Moscow in the hope of giving a diplomatic boost to Annan’s tattered peace plan for the resolution of the Syrian crisis.

Despite political moves , the violence across the country has been continuing, leaving at least 55 people dead. They included a girl who died along with three other people when the army rained shells on the town of Rastan,in the central province of Homs., according to the local coordination committees.

Elsewhere, three civilians and five rebels were killed in the shelling of neighborhoods of Deir Ezzor and in fighting, especially near the Bou Omar oil field in the province of Deir Ezzor, according to the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights.

In the city of Qousseir, residents started to dig "bunkers" to protect themselves from shells, according to an AFP correspondent. After the heavy bombing of recent days, residents of Qousseir, controlled for months by the Free Syrian Army (FSA), have carried out excavations to construct shelters in their own homes or businesses.

Also on Sunday, rebels fighters battled Syrian regime forces in districts in the south of Damascus , some of the most intensive daytime fighting yet inside the city limits of the capital, AFP reported according to Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian observatory for human rights.

Fighting was heaviest in the Tadamon, Kfar Sousa, Nahr Aisha and Sidi Qadad neighborhoods,Abdel Rahman told AFP.

According to SANA news agency, terrorist groups have infiltrated one of the neighborhoods of the capital and are blowing up bombs there. Government forces "have engaged them in battle, and inflicted heavy losses," said the bulletin.

In related development to current Syrian situation, the International Committee of the Red Cross said Sunday it now considers the the violence in Syria to be an “internal armed conflict," meaning international humanitarian law applies throughout the country, AP news reported.

Source: http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/07/15/syria-crisis-iran-idINDEE86E06V20120715