President Bashar al-Assad said Tuesday that foreign parties were seeking to destabilise Syria, as pressure mounted for the United Nations to take the lead in efforts to end 10 months of bloodshed. \"Regional and international parties who are trying to destabilise Syria can no longer falsify the facts and events,\" the embattled leader said in a speech in Damascus. \"They turned to assassinations with regional and international media coverage,\" he said. \"After all their attempts failed, the role of foreigners emerged.\"