Syria's President Bashar al-Assad (L) speaks with Shukri Bin Suleiman Harmasi (R), secretary general of the Tunisian al-Thawabit (Immutable Principles) Party, and head of a Tunisian delegation consisting of representatives of Tunisian political parties, and economic and popular movements, during a meeting in Damascus in this handout photograph distributed by Syria's national news agency SANA on May 23, 2013.
Civilians help a person, injured by what activists said was a rocket fired by forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, in Arbaeen near Damascus May 20, 2013 in this picture provided by the Shaam News Network. Picture taken May 20, 2013. Ammar Al-Erbeeni/Shaam News Network/Handout via Reuters.
FILE - This Saturday, July 21, 2012 file citizen journalist image shot through a broken car window shows smoke billowing from a building after fighting between rebels and Syrian troops in the Yarmouk camp for Palestinian refugees in south Damascus, Syria. Syria's fighting has uprooted more than half of the country's 530,000 Palestinians descendants of refugees from a Mideast conflict half a century ago and their situation is becoming increasingly desperate, the head of a U.N. aid agency said Thursday, May 23, 2013. The Palestinians in Syria are particularly vulnerable because of their refugee status, Filippo Grandi, head of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, told The Associated Press in an interview.
In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrian President Bashar Assad, third right, meets with a Tunisian delegation composed of representatives of political parties and movements, economic and popular in support of him, in Damascus, Syria, Thursday, May. 23, 2013.
Syrian regime supporters hold Jordanian and Syrian flags during a protest outside Le Meridien Hotel where takes place the 'Friends of Syria' group to discuss a US-Russian proposal for peace talks on May 22, 2013 in the Jordanian capital Amman. The Damascus regime's ambassador to Jordan lashed out at the group's meeting describing it as a gathering of 'enemies of Syria'.
In this image taken from video obtained from the Shaam News Network, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, smoke and fire rises after explosives were dropped by a Syrian government warplane in Yabroud near Damascus, Syria, Monday May 20, 2013. The Syrian regime claims there is no civil war in the country but that the army is fighting foreign-backed terrorists trying to topple Assad's government. More than 70,000 people have been killed in Syria since March 2011.
