Syria rejected on Monday the proposal by the opposition of a ceasefire during the holy month of Ramadan, which is due to begin Tuesday.

On Sunday, Ahmad Jarba, the new president of the opposition Syrian National Coalition, offered President Bashar Al-Assad a ceasefire during the month of Ramadan, hoping to bring a temporary end to the fighting in the besieged city of Homs, where rebels face a ferocious ground and air onslaught by Assad’s troops who are backed by Hizbullah terrorists.

Syria’s UN ambassador Bashar Ja’afari, however, rejected the idea, saying, “We need a full end of violence, not a partial one.”

Ja’afari added that the Syrian rebels would have to be fully engaged in peace talks and commit to a U.S.-Russian sponsored round of talks in Geneva.

Meanwhile, Assad forces have advanced on rebel-held areas of Homs, considered the “capital of the revolution”, and have seized control of a neighborhood where rebels had held sway for more than a year.

Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, currently serving as Middle East envoy to the Quartet, has called for international intervention in Syria.

Blair made the appeal Monday in an interview on BBC Radio 4’s Today program, warning that opposition forces are slowly losing ground against Assad’s forces, and without more international support, might entirely lose the war.