A UN crisis meeting in Geneva on the escalating conflict in Syria has agreed the terms for a transitional government to oversee the end of violence in the country.
A communique called for "clear and irreversible steps" following a fixed time frame, but is certain to come as a bitter disappointment to opposition groups fighting the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.
The announcement stated that present members of the government could be included in the new body - controversially leaving unresolved the key question of whether Assad could be part of that transitional government.
Special envoy Kofi Annan said he hoped to see concrete results towards a settlement within a year and insisted "it is for the people of Syria to come to a political agreement".
Addressing the meeting earlier, US secretary of state Hillary Clinton had tried to insist that Assad and his allies had no place in the transitional process. The meeting broke up amid reports of fresh violence in Syria, including claims that government forces had overrun the city of Douma, which has been under siege for several weeks.
Clinton said that the conditions set out in the statement offered the best chance of a transition to a democratic post-Assad period, including free elections. She... Source/Origin >> Read More
