Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has defended his government's crackdown on opponents, saying a doctor performing messy emergency surgery does not have blood on his hands if he is trying to save a patient.
In his first speech since January, Assad appeared unmoved by scathing international criticism of his ferocious response to the 15-month-old revolt against his rule, which has killed up to 13,000 people, according to activist groups.
Syrian rebels have reportedly carried out their threat to resume fighting against government forces after abandoning a UN-backed ceasefire.
Members of the Free Syrian Army say they are no longer bound by the eight-week ceasefire after their ultimatum to the government passed last Friday.
They had given the government 48 hours to abide by the truce and withdraw its tanks and troops from the streets.
A British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says rebels have killed between 80 and 150 soldiers since Friday in a spate of attacks across the country.
One Free Syrian Army spokesman, Sami al Kurdi, said the rebels are no longer bound by the truce and have begun attacking government forces to "defend their people".
EU officials are expected to press Russian President Vladimir Putin to take a stronger line on the crisis in Syria during a summit in St Petersburg.
EU member states want Russia to put pressure on its ally to withdraw heavy weapons from cities and comply fully with UN envoy Kofi Annan's peace plan.
Russia and China are also resisting US and European calls to condemn President Bashar al-Assad and seek his removal.
Syria has declared as unwelcome the ambassadors of several Western states, a week after governments around the world expelled its top diplomats.
The US, UK, French and Turkish envoys were among those designated "personae non gratae". Many have already left.
President Bashar al-Assad has blamed outside powers for Syria's divisions.
Meanwhile, the UN has said the Syrian government has agreed to allow aid agencies to enter the four provinces that have seen the most violence.
"This agreement was secured in Damascus with the government there, in writing," John Ging, the director of operations for UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) told reporters in Geneva after a meeting of the Syrian Humanitarian Forum.
"Freedom of movement, unimpeded access for humanitarian action within Syria, is what it's all about now. The good faith of the [Syrian] government will be tested on this issue today, tomorrow and every day," he added.
Since you understand the atrocities being perpetrated by Asaad against his own people, ....
...and you also feel that the UN can be effective in stopping such atrocities.
Annan to present last-ditch bid to solve Syria crisis, amid reports of new massacre
Kofi Annan to propose 'contact group' on Syria at UN; Group would include Russia, Iran, U.S., Saudis, others; Annan's six-point peace plan on verge of collapse.
By Reuters | Jun.07, 2012 | 9:47 AM
Kofi Annan, UN-Arab League envoy to Syria, attends an Arab ministerial committee meeting in Doha to discuss the Syrian crisis on June 2, 2012. Photo by AFP
International mediator Kofi Annan will present the UN Security Council on Thursday with a new proposal in a last-ditch effort to rescue his failing peace plan for Syria, where 15 months of violence have brought the country to the brink of civil war.
Annan and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will address the 15-nation council behind closed doors at 3:00 P.M. Ban and former UN chief Annan will also speak to the 193 nation General Assembly at 10:00 A.M., along with Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby.
The two UN meetings, which will focus on the escalating crisis in Syria, come as the Syrian opposition and Western and Gulf nations seeking the ouster of President Bashar Assad increasingly see Annan's six-point peace plan as doomed due to the Syrian government's determination to use military force to crush an increasingly militarized opposition.
The core of Annan's proposal, diplomats said, would be the establishment of a contact group that would bring together Russia, China, the United States, Britain, France and key regional players with influence on Syria's government and the opposition, such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and Iran.
By creating such a contact group, envoys said, Annan would also be trying to break the deadlock among the five permanent council members that has pitted veto powers Russia and China against the United States, Britain and France and prevented any meaningful UN action on the Syrian conflict, envoys said.
It would attempt to map out a "political transition" for Syria that would lead to Assad stepping aside and the holding of free elections, envoys said. One diplomat said the idea was "vaguely similar" to a political transition deal for Yemen that led to the president's ouster.
The main point of Annan's proposal, they said, is to get Russia to commit to the idea of a Syrian political transition, which remains the thrust of Annan's six-point peace plan, which both the Syrian government and opposition said they accepted earlier this year, but have failed to implement.
"We're trying to get the Russians to understand that if they don't give up on Assad, they stand to lose all their interests in Syria if this thing blows up into a major regional war involving Lebanon, Iran, Saudis," a Western diplomat told Reuters. "So far the Russians have not agreed."
Apart from lucrative Russian arms sales to Damascus, Syria hosts Russia's only warm water port outside the Soviet Union.
While Russia has repeatedly said it is not protecting Assad, it has given no indications that it is ready to abandon him.
Last week, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice suggested that if Russia continued to prevent the Security Council from putting pressure on Syria, states may have no choice but to consider acting outside the United Nations.
Diplomats said the West has been pushing Russia to abandon Assad in a series of recent meetings between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov with their European and U.S. counterparts.
An unnamed diplomat leaked further details of Annan's proposal to Washington Post columnist David Ignatius, who said that if the contact group agreed on a transition deal for Syria it could mean Russian exile for Assad.
The Post article said another option for Assad would be to seek exile in Iran, Damascus' other staunch ally.
Annan's peace efforts have failed to halt the violence, as demonstrated by a recent massacre in Houla that led to the deaths of at least 108 men, women and children, most likely by the army and allied militia, according the UN Opposition members said there was a similar massacre on Wednesday in Hama province, with 78 people killed.
But some said there was still hope for Annan's peace plan.
"It may be on life support, but it's not dead," a senior Western diplomat said about the peace plan.
In what could be the first step toward the creation of Annan's contact group, Russia's Lavrov on Wednesday floated the idea of an international meeting on the Syrian crisis that would bring together the prime candidates for Annan's proposed contact group, including Iran.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, however, reacted coolly to the idea of including Iran, which she said was "stage-managing" the Syrian government assault on the opposition the United Nations says killed at least 10,000 people.
