MOSCOW/BEIRUT/TRIPOLI, Libya: The European Union welcomed a newly formed Syrian opposition council Monday as a “positive step forward” and urged other countries to do the same, but stopped short of formal recognition of the anti-government body.
Libya’s interim ruling National Transitional Council meanwhile said Monday it recognizes the Syrian National Council as the country’s government.

“The National Transitional Council has decided after a meeting today to recognize the Syrian National Council as the sole legitimate government in Syria,” NTC member Mussa al-Koni told a news conference in Tripoli.
Koni, who represents Libya’s Tuareg minority in the NTC, said the council has “also decided to close the Syrian embassy in Libya.”

The National Council wants to be recognized internationally as representative of those ranged against Bashar Assad but has no plan to be an alternative government, one member said Monday after a meeting of the group in Stockholm.

“Our role ends with the fall of this regime,” said Abdulbaset Sieda, a Sweden-based member of the council’s executive committee, but discussions would then be held about future elections and broadening democracy.
“We will seek recognition … and we say all the time that there are important people, knowledgeable people who can do everything that is good for Syria and Syria’s future,” he said.

Damascus warned Sunday it would take “tough measures” against any state which formally recognized the council.
While some of Assad’s Western critics have welcomed the formation of the council, they are wary of Syria’s sensitive geo-strategic position – Iran is a close ally – and so have not embraced the opposition diplomatically or offered military help as they did the Libyan rebels who toppled Moammar Gadhafi.

Syria says it faces foreign-backed terrorist groups who it says have killed 1,100 soldiers and security personnel. International media are barred from the country, making it difficult to verify accounts from authorities and activists.
Demonstrations have been mainly peaceful, although often dispersed by force. However, reports of Sunni Muslim conscripts deserting and turning their guns on security forces, dominated by Assad’s minority Alawite sect, have been increasing.

At least 31 people were killed across Syria in the latest wave of violence, in clashes between gunmen believed to be army deserters and loyal Assad troops, a Syrian activist group said Monday.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Sunday’s death toll included 17 members of the army and security forces as well as 14 civilians, many of them in the opposition hotbed of Homs, where heavy gunfire was heard again early Monday.

While most opposition figures say they are still seeking to overthrow Assad by peaceful means, the most senior army officer to defect said last week that armed force was the only way.

The British-based Observatory said suspected deserters killed eight soldiers in simultaneous attacks on three army posts in the northern province of Idlib Sunday.
In Homs, seven civilians were shot dead and another eight people were later killed in clashes between troops and suspected deserters, the group said.

Heavy machinegun fire overnight and early Monday partially destroyed at least five houses in the Bab Sabaa district of the city, while in the Khalidiya neighborhood security forces raided houses and arrested 27 people, it said.
Homs has seen some of the worst violence in recent weeks, including attacks on officials and university staff.
Many activists blame pro-Assad “shabiha” militiamen for those killings, but some targets appear to have had links with authorities, who say their opponents were behind the deaths.

“There are … parties who are financing and arming groups in Syria, that are spreading sectarian violence, kidnapping people, assassinating our best scientists, our best doctors, in an attempt to try to tear the country apart,” presidential adviser Bouthaina Shaaban said in Malaysia.

Shaaban said she had told officials in Kuala Lumpur that Syria was “pressing ahead with the reforms that are answering the legitimate demands of our people.”
Assad formally ended decades of emergency rule and promised a multi-party parliamentary election next year. But activists say the gestures have made no difference, with killings, torture, mass arrests and army raids intensifying recently.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki encouraged Syria to open up its political system. “Certainly, we support the idea of ending one-party rule, rule by one person,” he told Reuters Monday when asked about what reforms were needed in Syria.

“I say openly that we support the idea of states that come from the people, states and governments appointed by the people, not those appointed behind closed doors.” Iraq’s Shiite-led government says it seeks balance in its relations in the Arab region. But Baghdad’s approach to Syria has been caught between backing Damascus – whose ruling Alawites are an offshoot of Shiite Islam – and concern about Syria’s upheaval spilling across the border into Iraq.

Syria has warned critics abroad not to help the opposition.
“We will take tough measures against any state which recognizes this illegitimate council,” Foreign Minister Walid Moallem told a news conference in Damascus Sunday. That drew a riposte from the French Foreign Ministry the next day.

“The Syrian authorities are wrong to think that threats, intimidation or assassinations will allow them to keep the Syrian people, or those who support their legitimate hopes for freedom and democracy, silent,” said spokesman Bernard Valero.

In separate developments, Moscow and Beijing said they are ready to propose a U.N. resolution on Syria that is more “balanced” than the West’s draft that they controversially vetoed last week, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Monday.
Lavrov said in an interview with Profil magazine that the Moscow-drafted version would condemn violence carried out both by the regime of Bashar Assad and the rebel opposition.

His comments came as the Kremlin’s Africa envoy Mikhail Margelov hosted in Moscow a Syrian delegation led by Qadri Jamil, a member of the so-called “internal opposition” seen as loyal to Assad.
Russia and China last week infuriated the West by blocking a U.N. resolution against Assad’s deadly crackdown on protests, even after the West dropped the word “sanctions” from a draft to temper Russian opposition.
“We propose to adopt a balanced resolution that would condemn violence from both sides,” Lavrov told Profil magazine in comments released Monday.

“Apart from that, we need to encourage the Syrian opposition to come to the negotiating table and try to reach an agreement. Together with our Chinese partners we are ready to offer such a resolution,” Lavrov said.
The foreign minister expressed concern that the resolution would give way for a full-scale arms embargo against Russia’s traditional Middle East ally.
“We remember how an embargo was implemented in relation to Libya,” he said. “We are also well aware of our partners’ ability to arm one of the sides in the conflict despite an embargo.”

The Russian Foreign Ministry is to host Syria’s Jamil for talks Tuesday, a ministry spokesman told AFP.
In March, Russia abstained from the U.N. Security Council resolution on Libya that essentially authorized military action, later accusing the West of abusing Moscow’s goodwill. Outgoing President Dmitry Medvedev said Friday that Assad should either reform or go but warned that Moscow would continue blocking any attempts by the West to oust him from power.