Syria's Assad meets UN special envoy Kofi Annan
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E-mail Xinhua, May 29, 2012
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad met Tuesday with UN-Arab League joint special envoy Kofi Annan, state-run SANA news agency reported.
The discussions, with no further details reported, apparently circulated about Annan's six-point peace plan and the latest massacre that killed more than 100 people in the central village of Houla in Homs province.
A day earlier, Annan told reporters that he expects to have " serious and frank" discussions with Assad.
Annan urged the Syrian government to take "bold steps" to signal its resolution to solve the 15-month crisis peacefully. He also called on "everyone with a gun" to lay down weapons to help create the right context for a credible political process.
"Our goal is to stop this suffering. It must end and it must end now," Annan said, adding that his six-point plan has to be implemented comprehensively. "And this is not happening."
Violence was reported Monday in different Syrian cities.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that 64 people were killed Monday, 36 of them military soldiers. The activists' report, however, couldn't be independently verified.
Meanwhile, the state media said at least six citizens were killed by armed groups in Hama and Homs Monday. It said four government troops were killed in the Damascus suburb of Mlaiha by a suicide car bomb that tore through the troops' checkpoint.
During his meeting with Annan on Monday, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem said his country is subject to tools that stir up anarchy.
Moallem also confirmed Syria's keenness to eliminate any obstacle that might encounter the mission of UN observers in Syria.
