Ghanaian diplomat to meet President Assad in Damascus

Ghanaian diplomat and former UN secretary general Kofi Annan arrived in Damascus to launch an initiative to stop bloodshed in Syria.

Opposition leaders said it was impossible to make any form of deal with President Bashar al-Assad while Syrian civilians were being killed by government forces.

Annan, who was appointed joint UN-Arab League envoy, intends to meet Assad during his visit and present ‘realistic’ proposals to stop the killing of civilians.

At least 26 were killed across Syria on Friday according to Opposition activists but cracks in Assad’s regime were becoming more visible.

According to a Turkish official, two Syrian generals, a colonel and two sergeants defected to Turkey on Thursday not long after Syria’s deputy oil minister Abdo Hussameldin and a brigadier general announced their desertion of the regime on YouTube.

The public nature of these announcements to denunciate the Assad government could be encouraging other high-ranking officers to follow their example.

The new defectors crossed into Turkey as part of the collective group of 234 Syrians since Thursday and were welcomed by EU foreign ministers.

The EU foreign ministers believed that the denunciation of such high-ranking officers was a sing that the sanctions against the Damascus government were having a positive effect.