video transcript

(ROUGH CUT ONLY - NO REPORTER NARRATION) U.N. Syria peace envoy Kofi Annan held talks in Damascus on Monday (July 9) with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who said in a recent interview U.S. political support for "terrorists" was hindering the peace envoy's plan to end 16 months of bloodshed. After his meeting with Assad, Annan said the two discussed the need to end the violence in Syria, and the ways and means of doing so. "We agreed an approach which we will also share - which I will share with the armed opposition. I also stressed the importance of moving ahead with a political dialogue, which the president accepts," Annan told journalists. Annan's spokesman Ahmed Fawzi described the talks as "positive". Syria is in the 16th month of a crackdown by Assad's forces against a militant opposition in which more than 15,000 people have been killed. Annan was heading for Tehran later on Monday.