A new initiative to resolve Syrian crisis Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is at the center of a new initiative involving Saudi Arabia — one that aims to resolve the Syrian crisis in the face of the continuing refusal of the Assad regime to honor the UN ceasefire deal. Erdogan is currently in Beijing where it is clear that Syria is a key part of his talks with the Chinese leadership. He then comes to the Kingdom for talks tomorrow with King Abdullah, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, and afterwards he plans to move on to Moscow. It has been the refusal of Russia and China to support any tough initiative from the UN Security Council, that has given the Syrian government the diplomatic cover beneath which it continues to slaughter its own people. Under the deal Assad agreed with UN envoy Kofi Annan, Syrian troops should have withdrawn from all the current battle lines on Tuesday, with a general ceasefire coming into force today. Instead, as was widely feared, the killing has gone on because Damascus has effectively insisted that the rebels surrender before Syrian troops and militias withdraw to their barracks. Such an insistence was clearly calculated to be rejected. Given the regime's past record of duplicity, it can be expected that any rebels who did lay down their arms would be arrested and probably shot out of hand. Besides which, if Assad withdrew his killing machine, it would be the end of his regime. In the last few weeks, the Chinese have been wavering in their support for the deeply discredited Assad, support which is bringing them ever greater criticism. Until now, Beijing's position has reflected its long-standing dislike of outside intervention in the affairs of sovereign states. Russia has until this week been a more steadfast Assad ally. It has its two Syrian naval bases to consider and Syria's long client relationship. But now the Putin administration is calling on Assad to honor the agreements he made with Kofi Annan. Erdogan may therefore be hoping that he is pushing at something of an open door in both China and Russia. The challenge clearly is to find a solution that will not only bring the bloodshed to an end but ensure an ending to the conflict that will not endanger regional stability, and will also allow Moscow and Beijing to claim some credit as peacemakers. This is where tomorrow's talks with King Abdullah will be so important. Erdogan is reportedly hoping that Saudi Arabia will once again head up at Arab initiative that will coordinate international measures to resolve the Syrian crisis. He will bring to his Riyadh talks the views of the Chinese government. These will likely inform proposals he drafts with the Saudi government which he can then take to Moscow. Erdogan's mission may be the tipping point for which the Arab world and the international community have been waiting for so long, to say nothing of the traumatized Syrian population, more than 9,000 of whom have now perished in Assad's savage crackdown. __
