DAMASCUS, Syria — International envoy Kofi Annan tried to breathe new life Monday into his moribund peace efforts in Syria, saying he has reached a new framework with President Bashar Assad and would discuss it soon with rebel leaders.
Meanwhile, opposition activists raised the death toll in the conflict to more than 17,000.
Mr. Annan, the architect of the primary international plan to end Syria’s 16-month-old crisis, arrived in Iran late Monday for talks with leaders there.
With the violence in Syria growing increasingly chaotic and diplomatic efforts faltering, Mr. Annan has said Iran, a staunch Syrian ally, must be a part of a solution to the conflict.
“We agreed on an approach which I will share with the armed opposition,” Mr. Annan told reporters following a two-hour meeting with Mr. Assad that he described as “candid and constructive” Monday.
“I also stressed the importance of moving ahead with a political dialogue which the president accepts,” he said without disclosing details of the framework he reached with Mr. Assad.
Mr. Annan’s efforts to broker an end to the Syrian conflict as the U.N.-Arab League envoy have unraveled as the uprising that began with peaceful protests in March 2011 has spiraled toward civil war.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Monday that 17,129 people had been killed since March 2011 - 11,897 civilians, 4,348 soldiers and 884 military defectors.
The group has a network of activists on the ground who document deaths and rights violations through eyewitness accounts, hospitals and video footage.
Another group, the Local Coordination Committees, says 14,841 civilians and fighters have been killed. The LCC does not report Syrian military deaths.
The government restricts journalists from moving freely, making it impossible to independently verify death tolls.
The violence has grown increasingly chaotic in recent months as rebels gain more arms, and it is difficult to assign blame for much of the carnage as the country spirals toward civil war. Activists have reported an average of about 100 people killed on some days in the past few weeks.
In an interview with the French daily Le Monde on Saturday, Mr. Annan acknowledged that the international community’s efforts to find a political solution to the escalating violence in Syria have failed.
He added that more attention needed to be paid to the role of Iran, saying Tehran “should be part of the solution.”
It is unclear what role Mr. Annan envisions for Iran, a staunch Syrian ally that has stood by Mr. Assad throughout the uprising.
Tehran’s close ties could make it an interlocutor with the regime, though the U.S. has often refused to let the Islamic Republic attend conferences about the Syria crisis.
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