DAMASCUS: Syria peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi appealed to both sides to call a truce to the conflict during a Muslim holiday this week after talks with President Bashar al-Assad, as a deadly blast rocked Damascus.
The plea came as thousands of people demonstrated against the Syrian regime at the Beirut funeral of a top Lebanese police intelligence chief, killed in a car bomb which Lebanon's opposition has blamed on its neighbour.
In Syria's capital, a bomb exploded outside a police station in a Christian quarter of the Old City, killing 13 people, the state news agency SANA reported, blaming rebels.
It was the first such attack against a Christian quarter since the uprising against Assad's regime erupted 19 months ago.
"The blast was so strong that my house, a mile away, shook," one resident told AFP.
Many Syrian Christians -- who make up just five percent of the mostly Sunni Muslim population -- have sided with the regime, fearing that the uprising could trigger an Islamist backlash against their community.
The bombing came as UN-Arab League envoy Brahimi called for "unilateral" ceasefires by the regime and the rebels for the Eid al-Adha holiday, or Feast of Sacrifice, which starts Friday.
"I appeal to everyone to take a unilateral decision to cease hostilities on the occasion of Eid al-Adha and that this truce be respected from today or tomorrow," he said.
"This is a call to every Syrian, on the street, in the village, fighting in the regular army and its opponents, for them to take a unilateral decision to stop hostilities."
Although he stressed that the ceasefire call was his personal initiative, both UN chief Ban Ki-moon and the head of the Arab League Nabil al-Arabi have also backed the initiative.
Brahimi said he had contacted political opposition leaders inside and outside Syria and armed groups in the country. "We found them to be very favourable" to the idea of a truce, he said.
"We will return to Syria after the Eid (feast) and if calm really takes hold during the feast, we will continue to work" on ending the conflict, he added.
Assad, during his meeting with Brahimi, said he was "open to any sincere efforts seeking to find a political solution to the crisis based on respecting Syria's sovereignty and rejecting any foreign interference," SANA reported.
Brahimi also met Sunday with the ambassadors of Russia and China -- countries that have blocked resolutions for tough actions against Syria at the UN Security Council -- an AFP reporter said.
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