Russia, Arabs Call for End to Syria Violence

Arab and Russian foreign ministers meeting in Cairo on Saturday called for an end to the violence in Syria "whatever its source," as they struggled try to find common ground on ways to resolve the deadly conflict.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters after a meeting at the Arab League headquarters that he and his Arab counterparts want "an end to the violence whatever its source."

Reading out a joint statement, Lavrov and Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani said they also agreed on setting up a mechanism for "objective monitoring" in the country and had agreed on no foreign intervention there.

They also called for "unhindered humanitarian access" in Syria and support for the mission to Damascus of U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan.

They said the five-point statement was based on the General Assembly resolution passed on February 16 and on previous Arab resolutions.

The meetings come as the West and the Arab world pile pressure on President Bashar Assad's regime to prevent a year-old uprising from spiraling into all-out civil war.

"The time has come to apply the proposal to send Arab and international troops to Syria," Sheikh Hamad said earlier.

He also demanded that the Syrian National Council be recognized by international powers.

The call came amid Western and Arab-led efforts to pile pressure on President Bashar Assad's regime, whose crackdown on dissent has cost the lives of more than 8,500 people, according to human rights monitors.

Arab foreign ministers meeting in Cairo last month agreed to ask the U.N. Security Council to issue a decision on the formation of a joint U.N.-Arab peacekeeping force to oversee the implementation of a ceasefire.

Russia and its diplomatic ally China in February vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning the Assad regime for the bloodshed in Syria and has shown little sign of shifting its policy since.

But Moscow is now coming under huge pressure from the West and Arab states to start exerting pressure on Assad's regime and support sanctions over the bloody crackdown.

"When we went to the Security Council, we did not get a resolution because of the Russian-Chinese veto which sent a wrong message to the Syrian regime," Sheikh Hamad said.

"Our patience and the patience of the world has run out," he said.

Syria was suspended from the Arab League in November.

Russia said on Friday it opposed an "unbalanced" Washington-backed U.N. draft resolution on Syria because it called on the government only to end violence but did not mention the rebels.