(Reuters) - Heavy fighting raged around the strategic
Syrian
border town of Qusair and the capital Damascus on Monday and further
reports surfaced of chemical weapons attacks by President Bashar
al-Assad's forces on rebel areas.
Intensified government
offensives are widely seen as a bid to strengthen Assad's position
before a peace conference proposed by the United States and
Russia for next month.
In
Brussels, British Foreign Secretary William Hague, who was pushing his
European Union colleagues to allow member states to arm the rebels, said
the expiry of existing EU sanctions this week meant countries could now
choose to send weapons to opposition fighters if they wanted to.
While Britain and
France
say such a move could strengthen the rebels ahead of the peace talks,
other countries oppose sending arms and EU diplomats said there was an
agreement not to send weapons for now.
The
Syrian military pounded eastern suburbs of Damascus with air strikes
and artillery and loud explosions echoed around al-Nabak, 80 km (50
miles) north of the capital, where fighting has cut the highway running
north to the central city of Homs, the pro-opposition Syrian Observatory
for Human Rights group said.
Opposition
activists said Syrian troops backed by Lebanese Hezbollah fighters were
pressing a sustained assault on Qusair, a town long used by insurgents
as a way station for arms and other supplies from Lebanon.
For
Assad, Qusair is a crucial link between Damascus and loyalist
strongholds on the Mediterranean coast. Recapturing the town could also
sever connections between rebel-held areas in the north and south of
Syria.
Hezbollah's deepening
involvement in Qusair has raised the prospect of renewed civil war in
Lebanon, where two rockets hit the Shi'ite Muslim movement's stronghold
in south Beirut on Sunday and one was fired from south Lebanon towards
Israel.
The
rockets struck hours after Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah
promised that his anti-Israel guerrillas, fighting alongside Assad's
forces, would win whatever the cost.
A
Lebanese security source said another 107mm rocket, which did not go
off, had been aimed at Beirut airport. The launch sites were near Aitat,
in the hills just south of the capital.
U.N.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon voiced "deep concern" at Hezbollah's
admitted combat role and the risk that the Syrian conflict will spill
into Lebanon and other neighbouring states.
"CHEMICAL ATTACK" AFFECTS DOZENS
The U.S.-Russian initiative so far appears only to have intensified the violence, especially around Qusair and Damascus.
In
Harasta, an eastern Damascus suburb largely under rebel control, dozens
of people were afflicted by respiratory difficulties after an apparent
overnight chemical attack, according to opposition sources. Video showed
victims lying on the floor of a room, breathing from oxygen masks.
The
sides in the conflict, now in its third year, have accused each other
of using chemical weapons. France's Le Monde newspaper published
first-hand accounts on Monday of apparent chemical attacks by Assad's
forces in April.
The newspaper
said one of its photographers had suffered blurred vision and breathing
problems for four days after an attack on April 13 on the Jobar front,
in central Damascus.
Another video
from Harasta overnight showed at least two fighters being put into a
van, their eyes watering and struggling to breathe while medics put
tubes into their throats.
It was not possible to verify the videos independently.
Syria,
which is not a member of the anti-chemical weapons convention, is
believed to have one of the world's last remaining stockpiles of
undeclared chemical arms.
French
Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told reporters in Brussels there was
"increasingly strong evidence of localised use of chemical weapons" in
Syria and said Paris would consult its partners on what action ought to
be taken.
TALL ORDER
The
U.S.-Russian initiative provides the first slim hope in almost a year
for a diplomatic end to a conflict that has cost more than 80,000 lives
and caused a refugee exodus that the U.N. refugee agency expects to top
3.5 million by the end of 2013.
After
a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in Paris, Russian
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said organising a peace conference -
which may happen in Geneva in June - was a tricky but not, he hoped,
impossible endeavour.
"It's not an
easy task. It's a very tall order. But I hope that when the United
States and the Russian Federation take this kind of initiative, the
chances for success are there," he said after the two met by themselves
for roughly 90 minutes.
China,
which along with Russia, has three times blocked U.N. Security Council
action on Syria, said on Monday it would join the proposed talks and
would push all concerned towards peace.
Damascus
has indicated it will take part in the talks. But the fractured
opposition, which has previously required Assad's exit to be guaranteed
before any negotiations, has yet to lay out its position and remains
mired in internal quarrels.
The
opposition crisis deepened on Monday when liberals were offered only
token representation, undermining international efforts to lend the
Islamist-dominated alliance greater support.
To
the dismay of envoys of Western and Arab nations monitoring four days
of opposition talks in Istanbul, the 60-member Syrian National Coalition
thwarted a deal to admit a liberal bloc headed by opposition campaigner
Michel Kilo.
The failure to
broaden the coalition, in which a Qatari-backed bloc influenced by the
Muslim Brotherhood is prominent, could sap Saudi support for the revolt.
The coalition's Western backers had wanted more seats for liberals, an idea backed by
Saudi Arabia, which had been uneasy about Qatar's rising influence, coalition insiders said.
(Additional
reporting by Ingrid Melander and Brian Love in Paris, Costas Pitas in
London, Ben Blanchard in Beijing, Adrian Croft and Justyna Pawlak in
Brussels and Tom Miles in Geneva; Writing by Alistair Lyon and Robin
Pomeroy; Editing by Michael Roddy)
