JOIN USInternational peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi warned after meeting President Bashar al-Assad today that the worsening conflict in Syria poses a threat to the region and the world at large.
"The crisis is dangerous and getting worse, and it is a threat to the Syrian people, the region and the world," said the newly-appointed Brahimi, who took over as envoy earlier this month from former UN chief Kofi Annan.
"We will make a great effort to make progress, and do our best ... to help the Syrian people," he said, without giving specifics on how to breathe life into stalled peace efforts, 18 months into Syria's deadly conflict.
"The Syrian government has promised to help the (envoy's) office in Damascus to do its work well," said Brahimi, referring to a political office headed by diplomat Mokhtar Lamani.
Brahimi, a 78-year-old veteran Algerian troubleshooter, has also held talks with Foreign Minister Walid Muallem and members of the officially tolerated opposition since he arrived in the Syrian capital on Thursday.
United Nations spokeswoman Vannina Maestracci has said the UN-Arab League envoy would also hold talks on Saturday with Arab ambassadors and a European Union delegation, following the meeting with Assad.
Brahimi already warned on arrival that the conflict is "getting worse," as underlined by the daily bloodshed.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which gathers information from a network of activists on the ground, said 132 people were killed in violence yesterday, including 100 civilians, 18 of whom died in the capital.
Brahimi held talks yesterday with Syrian opposition figures who said he was bringing "new ideas" to the peace effort, as blasts rocked Damascus and regime air strikes targeted rebel areas in the northern city of Aleppo.
He met with opposition groups tolerated by Assad's regime such as the National Coordination Committee for Democratic Change, which groups Arab nationalists, Kurds and socialists.
"We told Mr Brahimi... of our support for his efforts to resolve the crisis by ending the violence and killings, providing medical care and releasing political prisoners," Hassan Abdel Azim, the bloc spokesman, told reporters.
Brahimi will "listen to the opposition and officials andcrystalise new ideas and a plan that could succeed," he said after the talks in a Damascus hotel, adding the peace initiative of his predecessor Kofi Annan would be amended.
"There will be new ideas and measures," Abdel Azim told reporters.
He said a delegation of his group would leave today for China, a key Damascus ally, to urge Beijing to "put pressure on the regime to stop the violence, free detainees and allow peaceful protests."
Brahimi is on his first Damascus visit since his appointment to replace Annan who quit the post after a hard-sought peace deal he brokered became a dead letter.