US, allies start work on transition plan for Syria

By BRADLEY KLAPPER

Associated Press

ISTANBUL — The United States and its allies in Europe, Turkey and the Arab world have agreed to work on a political transition plan for Syria, hoping to persuade President Bashar Assad’s powerful ally Russia to join a broadened diplomatic effort to ease the embattled leader out of power, a senior U.S. official said.

The push for a structured end to the four-decade Assad regime came late Wednesday at a closed-door meeting of foreign ministers and other top officials in Istanbul, including U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. It also coincided with fresh reports of a surge in bloodshed in Syria’s central Hama province. At least 23 people were killed, with one activist group reporting as many as 86 dead.

Clinton, according to the U.S. official, outlined a set of principles to guide the post-Assad transition strategy. But with neither Russia nor China present, and both remaining hostile to the idea of global sanctions against the Syrian government or any Libya-style military intervention, it was unclear what effect the show of unity might produce.

Assad’s refusal to allow peaceful protest and determination to crack down on any political dissent poses another problem. Some 13,000 people have been killed in Syria over 15 months of repression and later armed rebellion, and a peace plan proposed by United Nations mediator Kofi Annan has failed to halt the violence.

“Given the continuing horrific violence, including today in Lattakia and in Hama, the group obviously talked about increasing the pressure on the Assad regime and those who still support it,” said a senior State Department official.

The official described Clinton reciting familiar messages to the group, which included foreign ministers or senior envoys from Britain, France, the European Union, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and 11 other governments.