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March 8, 2012

Annan Warns Against Syria Intervention

By MATT BRADLEY And NOUR MALAS

CAIRO--Kofi Annan, the diplomat spearheading the latest international drive to stem Syria's violence, cautioned against armed foreign intervention in the country, a warning that suggests the international community will continue a diplomatic path that has so far failed to resolve the yearlong conflict.

"We have to be careful that we don't introduce a medicine that is worse than the disease," Mr. Annan told reporters Thursday at the Arab League's headquarters in Cairo, in a call echoed by Turkey's president. Mr. Annan added, in a veiled reference to Iraq: "We don't have to go very far in the region to find an example of what I am talking about."

Also Thursday, a top Syrian oil ministry official announced his defection from the regime challenged other ruling-party members to follow suit, in the highest-level official defection yet in the one-year conflict, which the United Nations says has left more than 7,500 people dead.

Syrian troops stormed towns around the central city of Hama and appeared to prepare to move into northern towns, activists said. Across the country, 56 people were killed, activists said, including 47 in Homs, a center of opposition to Mr. Assad. All but three of those killed in Homs were executed, according to the Local Coordination Committees, an activist network. The network didn't provide further details and the report couldn't be verified.

The U.N.'s humanitarian chief, Valerie Amos, said Thursday she was struck by significant devastation in Homs's Baba Amr district.

"That part of Homs is completely destroyed and I am concerned to learn what happened to the people in that part of the city," Ms. Amos said, according to the Associated Press. On Wednesday, she became the first independent outside observer to view Baba Amr, which the military overran late last week after 26 days of shelling.

Mr. Annan, a former United Nations secretary-general, delivered his caution against intervention following a meeting in Cairo with the pan-Arab body's secretary-general, Nabil Al Araby. The Ghanaian diplomat is due to arrive in Syria on Saturday as a joint envoy for the U.N. and the Arab League, both of which have mounted calls for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step aside in an orchestrated power transfer.

President Assad has rejected such calls. Earlier this week, as Syrian forces have stepped up attacks on an increasingly militarized opposition, U.S. Senator John McCain called for American-led airstrikes against Syrian military installations.

Also Thursday, Turkish President Abdullah Gul warned that foreign intervention could be perceived as "exploitation" of the sectarian-charged conflict.

"We do not think it is right for the powers outside the region to intervene in the region," Mr. Gul said. "We think it is more appropriate for the region to solve this issue by itself."

Mr. Gul addressed reporters in Tunis alongside Tunisia's interim president, Moncef Al Marzouki. The Tunisian leader, who has offered asylum for Mr. Assad, said the best option for Syria was a negotiated exit for the Syrian president.

In Geneva, the United Nations' humanitarian agency told diplomats Thursday it is preparing a 90-day aid plan for Syria with food stocks for 1.5 million people, officials told the AP.

Diplomats from among some 60 nations at a daylong meeting in the U.N.'s European headquarters said they were also pushing for more access for relief workers and discussed the U.N.'s roughly $100 million plan, the AP said.

In Syria, a defection by one of the top three oil-ministry officials signaled the potential for cracks within the government.

Abdo Hussameddine, who as one of two assistants to the minister is in charge of refining, announced his resignation in a recorded video statement.

"I declare that I am joining the revolution of this nation, which did not and will not accept injustice, despite the brutality of this regime and its supporters, to crush the people who are seeking their freedom and dignity," Mr. Hussameddine, in a suit and tie with graying hair, said in a video posted on YouTube and circulated by Syrian activists.

He also said he was resigning from Syria's ruling Baath Party, on a public holiday commemorating the 49th year of Baath rule over Syria.

A spokeswoman for Syria's oil minister confirmed the person in the video was Mr. Hussameddine, one of two assistants to the refining minister. Speaking by telephone from Damascus, the spokeswoman declined to comment further.

Though hundreds of Baath Party members resigned in the early months of the uprising last year, President Assad's government has remained largely cohesive. No ministers have defected, though the president has swapped posts or changed at least one minister.

In the video, Mr. Hussameddine encouraged his colleagues to defect, calling the regime "a doomed boat, which is about to sink."

--Joe Parkinson contributed to this article.

Write to Matt Bradley at matt.bradley@dowjones.com and Nour Malas at nour.malas@dowjones.com