Assad tells Syria envoy arms flows to rebels must stop

By Marwan Makdesi

DAMASCUS (Reuters) - A car bomb killed 13 people in central Damascus on Sunday as President Bashar al-Assad told an international mediator seeking a truce in Syria's civil war that the key to any political solution was to stop arming rebels.

The bomb exploded outside a police station in the mainly Christian central Bab Touma district of the capital while Assad held talks with United Nations-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, who is pushing for a temporary ceasefire to mark the Islamic festival of Eid al-Adha.

State news agency SANA said the president said Syria supported "any sincere effort to find a political solution to the crisis, based on respect for Syrian sovereignty and rejecting foreign intervention."

Any proposal "must be centered around the principle of halting the terrorism and ... commitment by the countries involved in supporting, arming and harboring the terrorists in Syria to stop these actions", SANA quoted Assad as saying.

Syrian authorities blame neighboring Turkey in particular for the bloodshed because it has sheltered mainly Sunni Muslim rebels fighting to overthrow Assad, from Syria's Alawite minority which is an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam. Gulf Sunni powers Saudi Arabia and Qatar also support arming the rebels.

Syria's conflict, which started with peaceful protests for reform, has escalated into a civil war marked by heavy use of artillery and air power by Assad's forces and regular bombings against symbols of his authority in Syria's main cities.

The Interior Ministry said the Bab Touma bomb, on the edge of the old city of Damascus, killed 13 people. Security forces cut off access to the area. Television pictures showed shattered glass on the road and several burnt out cars.

HOPING FOR CALM