Thousands of Syrians waving Russian flags cheered Russia's foreign minister as he arrived in Damascus Tuesday for talks with President Bashar Assad. Lavrov began the talks by saying Moscow wants the Arab people to live in peace and that the Syrian leader is aware of his responsibility. Lavrov's visit comes days after Syrian allies Russia and China vetoed a Western- and Arab-backed resolution at the United Nations that would have condemned the Assad regime's crackdown on dissent and call on him to transfer some of his powers to his deputy. The Syrian government had rejected the Arab plan as intervention in Syria's internal affairs. Regime forces, meanwhile, stepped up an assault on the flashpoint city of Homs, using tanks and machine guns in a push to recover rebel-held districts.