A protester holds placards during a protest against Syria’s President Bashar Al-Assad and in solidarity with Syria’s anti-government protesters, in Beirut, Friday. The placards read, “I didn’t raise you this way, Bashar” (R) and “Leave, Bashar Al-Assad.” — Reuters

DAMASCUS — A Syrian opposition leader said Friday the regime is trying to destroy a UN-brokered peace plan for the country as President Bashar Al-Assad’s troops shot and wounded protesters in the capital Friday, and thousands demonstrated across the country a day after twin bombings killed dozens of people in Damascus.

The accusations came as security forces fanned out following twin suicide car bombings that killed 55 people in Damascus.

Meanwhile, the European Union is set to slap new sanctions on Syria, imposing an assets freeze and visa ban on two firms and three people, EU diplomats said Friday.

The measures targeting “mainly sources of revenue for the regime” will be decided at talks between EU foreign ministers next Monday, the diplomats said.

During a news conference in Tokyo, Burhan Ghalioun, chief of the opposition Syrian National Council, said there would be no peaceful solution to the violence in Syria without “a threat of force against those who don’t implement the plan.”

“Assad feels that he can run away from implementing all of his obligations without any consequences,” Ghalioun said.

Ghalioun told journalists that Assad’s government had recently been resorting to terrorist tactics to keep people from going out on the streets to demonstrate. “The Annan plan is in crisis today,” he said. The plan will die if Assad’s government continues to challenge it and “continues using terrorist bombings.”

“We believe that now we cannot reach any compromise through negotiations if Bashar Assad is still in power because he will try to abort any initiative that is based on a political solution,” he said.

If the Annan plan fails, “the only choice for us will be armed conflict,” Ghalioun said.

Ghalioun suggested the regime was somehow behind the blasts as a way to taint the uprising.

“The relationship between the Syrian regime and Al-Qaeda is very strong,” he said.

Ghalioun was visiting Tokyo at the government’s invitation and is appealing for diplomatic support and more humanitarian aid. Japan has already provided $3 million in aid, and Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba said Thursday during his meeting with Ghalioun that Tokyo was considering adding to that.

The rebel Free Syrian Army also condemned the attacks and blamed the regime for staging them as a way to bolster its claims that terrorists are behind the uprising against Assad. “The Syrian regime wanted through these terrorist explosions to support its silly story of the presence of armed and terrorist gangs,” said the statement, read by a man who identified himself as Col. Qassim Saad-Eddine and delivered in a video broadcast.

Mohammed Hussein, who lives across the street from the military compound that was targeted Thursday, was clearing debris from his home Friday. He said the windows and doors were blown away.

“We will have to throw everything away,” said Hussein, who was struck by shrapnel in Thursday’s blast.

The United Nations, meanwhile, called on both sides to the conflict to cooperate with a month-old ceasefire.

“Five civilians were wounded when regime troops opened fire in the Tadamon neighborhood,” of Damascus Friday to quell protests, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Thousands of people took part in anti-regime demonstrations in towns across Syria after the weekly Muslim prayers, monitors said. — Agencies