GENEVA — Global powers agreed on Saturday to back a plan for political transition in Syria that did not include a specific call for President Bashar Assad to step down.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodman Clinton said the document paved the way for a ‘‘post-Assad unity government,’’ but the Russian foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, pointed out that it made no attempt to impose any kind of transition process on Syria.
Kofi Annan, the special envoy to Syria for the United Nations and the Arab League, put a positive spin on the agreement, saying the international community had come together to promote a political transition for Syria, which has been plagued by violence during a 16-month uprising. He said that members of the current Assad government could play a role in the new unity government, but that the people of Syria would decide Assad’s future. He also said he doubted that Syrians would ‘‘select people with blood on their hands to lead them.’’
The Geneva talks seemed to be in trouble even before they began, with Russia in particular resisting proposals to remove the Syrian president. ‘‘The way things are going thus far, we are not helping anyone,’’ Annan bluntly told the major powers in his opening remarks. ‘‘Let us break this trend and start being of some use.’’
The agreement came as yet another bomb went off in the heart of the Syrian capital, Damascus, the fourth major attack there in the past week, and the government boasted that it was continuing to bombard a rebellious suburb. And though the death toll on Saturday was much lower than it had been in recent days, 81 people were killed, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, most of them civilians killed in bombardments by government forces.
‘‘An international crisis of grave severity now looms,’’ said Annan in his opening remarks, highlighting ‘‘the threat of a regional spillover, a new front for the forces of international terrorism, the prospect of ever increasing radicalization and extremism, the specter of an ever greater slide into sectarian conflict,’’ in the ‘‘midst of one of the most delicately balanced and conflict-torn regions in the world.’’
“This is the situation we have allowed to emerge,’’ Annan continued.
Annan called for a government of national unity with full executive powers, which could include members of the present government but not ‘‘those whose continued presence and participation would undermine the credibility of the transition and jeopardize stability and reconciliation.’’ That suggested the exclusion of Assad, especially since the Syrian opposition has refused to discuss any peace deal that includes the Syrian leader.
The United States has said that Assad must step aside as part of any resolution. Russia, Assad’s most important ally, may not rule out his departure, diplomats in Geneva said, but insists that it is an issue Syrians must decide themselves.
‘‘President Assad and his closest associates cannot credibly lead the process of transition in Syria,’’ said William Hague, the British foreign secretary. ‘‘This is a statement of fact, reflecting reality now that so much blood has been spilt.’’
Meanwhile, thick black smoke billowed over downtown Damascus after the bombing of a police complex, according to witnesses. It was the fourth time in a week that insurgents had struck in the capital. And the Syrian army continued for at least the fourth day its intensive shelling of Douma, a restive Sunni Muslim suburb 6 miles northeast of downtown Damascus.
Details on Saturday’s explosion in Damascus, which occurred around 7 a.m., were scant, but witnesses said it appeared to be in the area of the Police Academy, between the Barza and Qaboun neighborhoods. Activists said the target had been the police special forces unit, but there was no way to immediately confirm that.
SANA, the Syrian state news agency, made no mention of the attack, but did say there had been a bombing of the Finance Ministry building in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria’s largest.
The news agency also confirmed the heavy fighting in the Damascus suburb of Douma, saying a government operation there had uncovered what it said were torture chambers and field hospitals used by the rebels, which it refers to as terrorists.
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