The representative of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Saeed Jalili, arrived in Damascus Tuesday morning. There he will meet with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the Iranian media reported. "Jalili will meet in the next hour President Bashar al-Assad and other senior Syrian officials," reported the website of Iran's state television.
Iran is the main regional ally of Syria and has been accusing the United States, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey of supporting the rebels militarily to topple the Syrian regime.
The Iranian Foreign Minister, Ali Akbar Salehi, will travel briefly to Turkey on Tuesday afternoon to talk about the Syrian situation. He will meet his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu.
The visit comes two days after the abduction of 48 Iranians claimed by the Free Syrian Army of being soldiers. Salehi has asked during a telephone conversation with Davutoglu for Turkey's "intervention" to help the release of the abducted Iranians.
Meanwhile, a Syrian general, accompanied by 12 officers, defected and arrived in Turkey. More than a thousand refugees have also crossed the border over the past 24 hours, reported Tuesday the Anatolia news agency, bringing to nearly 50,000 the total number Syrian refugees in Turkey since the beginning of the crisis.
On the field, fighting resumed Tuesday in Aleppo, the second largest city of the country. Clashes took place in the center of the city, including in the neighborhoods of Antioch, Aziziyah, Bab Jenin Bahrat Sabah, and near the courthouse in the west part of the city, said the Syrian Observatory of Human home (SOHR).
The army also pounded parts of Shaar and Sakhour. The opposition activists have said the army had used helicopters and bombed the area of Hanano.
Monday was a particularly bloody day in Syria in which 226 people were killed across the country, including 147 civilians, 57 members of the security forces and 22 rebels.
