Syrian President Bashar Assad

President Bashar Assad has denied ordering a deadly crackdown in Syria, saying "no government in the world kills its people unless it's led by a crazy person. " In an interview with ABC's Barbara Walters that is scheduled to air Wednesday night, the Syrian leader acknowledged that mistakes had been made but maintained that "there was no command to kill or be brutal. " "There's a difference between having a policy to crack down and between having some mistakes committed by some officials," he said, according to excerpts released by ABC News.

BEIRUT - Just hours into a cease-fire between the Syrian government and the opposition, the truce was already on shaky ground as more than a dozen people were reported killed and there was no sign that government tanks and heavy weapons had been withdrawn from contested areas. A draft resolution for a United Nations advance monitoring mission could be voted on as early as Friday in an effort to end unrest in the 13-month uprising against Syrian President Bashar Assad. Diplomats who met Thursday said a force as large as 200 could eventually be sent to Syria if both sides pledge to honor the peace plan.

Jamil Assad, 71, the youngest brother of the late Syrian President Hafez Assad, has died. There was no official announcement in Syria, but sources in Damascus said Assad died Wednesday at a French hospital where he had been treated for about a month. Assad, the uncle of current President Bashar Assad, had not played a significant political role in recent years despite having been a member of Syria's Parliament since 1971.

To the surprise of hardly anyone, the peace plan for Syria brokered by U.N. special envoy Kofi Annan is collapsing in a hail of bullets and artillery. The question is whether anyone has the stomach for tougher action. Despite low expectations that Annan's plan for averting all-out civil war would have much influence with Syrian President Bashar Assad, it was the only one on offer - a necessary first step, according to veteran diplomats and security experts. Its failure will force the international community to reconsider more aggressive options, such as imposing a no-fly zone or authorizing pinpoint airstrikes on Syrian artillery to end the year-old conflict, which has left an estimated 9,000 people dead.

Speaking from what he apparently considers a position of strength, Syrian President Bashar Assad this week condemned the "terrorists," "traitors" and "outsiders" he said were leading the 10-month-old uprising against him and threatened to strike his enemies with an "iron fist. " Preventing such an offensive by the regime, which has complied only fitfully with a demand by the Arab League that it restrain itself, will be difficult. But the Arab League and the United Nations can and must do more to minimize the violence and brutal repression in Syria, which has continued unabated since the uprising began.

Syrian President Bashar Assad has rejected an Arab League plan that would have eased him out of power and laid the groundwork for elections, calling it "flagrant interference" in Syria's internal affairs. That's not surprising, but it's too bad. The proposal was a sensible one that could have stopped the bloodshed. The problem is that Assad lacks sufficient incentive — at this point anyway — to comply with it. The Arab League had already imposed sanctions on Syria, suspended the country's membership and dispatched a team of monitors.

Having already killed as many as 1,300 of his own people, Syrian President Bashar Assad is now promising constitutional reform and an end to bloodshed. In a speech Monday, he called for a "national dialogue," suggested that rival political parties would be allowed, and urged refugees to return from Turkey. His opponents were unimpressed, and thousands of protesters took to the streets after the address. If President Obama is similarly skeptical — as he ought to be — he should do what he has so far refused to do: call on Assad to step down.

A Syrian-born U.S. citizen has been charged with sending Syrian intelligence agencies recordings of dissidents in the U.S. before and after meeting privately with Syrian President Bashar Assad. Mohamad Soueid, who appeared at his first federal court hearing in Alexandria, Va., on Wednesday, was working to "undermine, silence, intimidate and potentially harm" anti-regime protesters in the U.S., according to the indictment. Soueid allegedly was reporting directly to Syrian intelligence officials and was also allegedly in close contact with the Syrian Embassy in Washington.

His family name is both help and handicap for Ribal Assad as he tries to push for democratic change in his homeland, Syria. Assad is a cousin of Syrian President Bashar Assad, whose repressive regime is under heavy pressure from pro-democracy protesters at home and from Western nations angry over the bloody crackdown he has mounted in response. As a member of the clan, Ribal Assad, 36, occupies a compelling position from which to speak out against the abuses of his cousin's government.

Under intense pressure from Arab states, Syria has signed a pact to pull its armed forces from the streets, release political prisoners and engage with opposition groups after seven months of unrest that has ravaged the strategically situated nation and unsettled the entire region. On the surface, the move appears to be a major concession from an increasingly isolated President Bashar Assad, who has been the target of international condemnation and sanctions. But some of Assad's opponents question whether the agreement signals a true change in attitude to the uprising, or is simply an effort to buy time for his regime.

WASHINGTON - U.S. intelligence agencies don't see signs that Syrian President Bashar Assad is losing his grip on power, said the chairman of the House intelligence committee during a television interview Sunday. “We don't see Assad's inner circle crumbling,” said Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence on CNN's "State of the Union" with Candy Crowley. In fact, the Syrian leadership believes they are “winning” against the armed rebels trying to topple the government, said Rogers, citing U.S. intelligence reports.

The debate on what to do about Syria is intensifying by the day, yet a consensus seems as elusive as ever. The current argument is about whether to arm the rebels. The Obama administration and its allies are opposed despite increasing pressure from influential voices deeply dismayed at the daily carnage. The problem is not with the merits of arming or helping the opposition in Syria but with the international community's approach. Incremental policymaking in response to events on the ground will lead the world down an unwanted path.

  Speaking with an unusually unanimous voice on a divisive issue, the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday approved a statement supporting former Secretary-General Kofi Annan's peacemaking efforts in Syria and the delivery of aid for victims of the violence. The nonbinding vote included the support of Russia, which has stood in the way of previous council proposals on Syria. Moscow has opposed international intervention in the conflict and has a long-standing alliance with the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

  At a small table in a hotel restaurant where elderly men drank coffee and played speed chess, Abu Ismail's phone rang. He picked it up and squinted at the caller ID. "Allo," he said. "A 16? How many? $2,000? If it's clean, bring it, yes. " With that, Abu Ismail bought one M-16 assault rifle for the Syrian rebellion. For months, arms merchants such as Abu Ismail have been buying black-market weapons in Lebanon for the insurgency against Syrian President Bashar Assad.

President Obama on Tuesday ruled out a unilateral U.S. military campaign to support the beleaguered rebels in Syria, calling such an operation "much more complicated" than the NATO-led air war launched to help protect civilians during the civil war in Libya last year. At a White House news conference, Obama described the shelling and other attacks on civilians and rebel fighters by forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad as "heartbreaking and outrageous. " But Obama made it clear that he is not prepared to send U.S. forces to try to stop the carnage in Syrian cities and towns, or to help overthrow Assad, as some Republicans in Congress have urged.

  Syrian forces overran a longtime rebel enclave in the battleground city of Homs, the government said Thursday, as the United Nations Security Council called on Syrian authorities to allow immediate humanitarian access to conflict-ridden areas of the country. The occupation of Homs' Baba Amr neighborhood, which became an international symbol of resistance, is an important victory for the Syrian military, though rebels continue to battle government forces in other parts of Homs and elsewhere in the country.

WASHINGTON - U.S. intelligence agencies don't see signs that Syrian President Bashar Assad is losing his grip on power, said the chairman of the House intelligence committee during a television interview Sunday. “We don't see Assad's inner circle crumbling,” said Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence on CNN's "State of the Union" with Candy Crowley. In fact, the Syrian leadership believes they are “winning” against the armed rebels trying to topple the government, said Rogers, citing U.S. intelligence reports.

U.S. Middle East envoy George J. Mitchell traveled to Damascus on Thursday in a bid to persuade Syrian President Bashar Assad to support Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. U.S. and Syrian officials said little about the meeting, but Syria is thought to be skeptical about the talks and prospects for its own negotiations with Israel. Syrian officials don't believe Israel's leadership would be willing to return the Golan Heights, which Israel captured in the 1967 Middle Est War, and doubt an Israeli-Palestinian peace would last without the approval of the militant group Hamas, a foe of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas that controls the Gaza Strip.

The United States and allied governments seeking the ouster of Syrian President Bashar Assad were expected to exert new pressure Friday on Syrian authorities to agree to a cease-fire and allow humanitarian aid into besieged areas such as the battered central city of Homs. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is among the many diplomats scheduled to arrive Friday in Tunis, the Tunisian capital, with a goal of turning up the heat on Assad's government. "We've got to find ways to get food, medicine and other humanitarian assistance in to those affected by violence," Clinton said Thursday in London, where she and other diplomats discussed Syria, among other issues.

Thousands of mourners braved a snowstorm and heavy security presence to march Saturday through a strategic Damascus neighborhood, turning a funeral procession into a bold opposition statement in a Syrian capital that has remained largely loyal to President Bashar Assad. The march, in the upscale Mezzeh district, started out peacefully but turned violent, opposition activists said, as security men unleashed barrages of live rounds. At least one person was reported killed and several injured, though there was no official confirmation.