Saudis press Kerry for hard line on Syria 'genocide'

Saudi Arabia urged global action to end Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime, telling US Secretary of State John Kerry the civil war had turned into "genocide" as fierce fighting raged in Damascus.
In the Syrian capital yesterday the army pressed a major assault to crush rebels around the capital, a monitoring group and activists said.
And in the contested city of Aleppo in the country's north, rebels attempted to advance into western regime-held districts, sparking clashes with government forces, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
"The army is trying to take over Qaboon, Barzeh, Jubar, Al-Hajar Al-Aswad and Yarmuk," said Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman, referring to neighbourhoods in the northern, eastern and southern outskirts of the capital.

"The army doesn't have the capacity to take over these neighbourhoods, and the rebels are fighting back. But the humanitarian situation there is catastrophic," Abdel Rahman told AFP.
Kerry met leaders of the Sunni Arab monarchy as part of a regional tour in which he has called for greater support for Syria's rebels but stressed that Washington ultimately wants a political solution that includes all sides.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal told Kerry that Assad, a secular leader who belongs to the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, has waged "genocide" through the more than two-year conflict that has claimed nearly 100,000 lives.

"The kingdom demands a clear, unequivocal international resolution that bans any sort of weapons support for the Syrian regime and declares null and void the legitimacy of that regime," Faisal said at a joint news conference.
"The regime's illegitimacy eliminates any possibility of it being part of any arrangement or playing any role whatsoever in shaping the present and future," he said.
Faisal voiced dismay at the role of rival Iran, which has poured assistance to Assad to save its main Arab ally. Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite Muslim group backed by Iran, is fighting in support of Syrian government forces.

"Syria is facing two things -- unprecedented genocide in this region and a foreign invasion," Faisal said.
Kerry has previously voiced fears of "ethnic cleansing" in Syria.
President Barack Obama has vowed to step up support for the rebels after concluding that Assad defied warnings and used chemical weapons. But he is cautious about deeper involvement in an increasingly sectarian conflict.