adminBurhan Ghalioun, the head of the opposition Syrian National Council (SNC), said at the opening of the so-called “Friends of Syria” in Istanbul: “We demand serious action. The Syrian regime will inevitably fall. Don’t prolong the catastrophe. The opposition is united; now it is time for you to unite and support the Syrian opposition.”
Ghalioun called for urgent relief aid, for the setting up of humanitarian corridors in the country and for tangible support for the opposition rebels (the Free Syrian Army).
To help the armed opposition financially, Ghalioun said: “The SNC will take charge of the payment of fixed salaries of all officers, soldiers, and others who are members of the Free Syrian Army.”
He urged the international community to recognise the SNC as the sole representative of the Syrian people.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, called for the international community to speak with one voice in his opening remarks.
“We believe geopolitical concerns and interests cannot rule our world. We refuse to take such a stand. We refuse to accept a situation where tanks are shooting women and children,” Erdogan said.
“We also believe the international community has a moral obligation to act. We must make sure that only our conscience speaks.
“It is crucial that we speak with one voice. The message that we give to the Syrian regime must be very exact, very precise . . . . The bloodshed in Syria must stop. We demand this.”
Amid demands from some for active intervention to assist Syria’s opposition, Erdogan said Syrians’ right to self-defence should be accepted.
“If the United Nations Security Council refrains from taking on the responsibility, the international community will have no chance but to accept Syrians’ right to self-defence,” he said.
The meeting brings together representatives from western and Arab nations criticial of the government in Damascus and members of the Syrian National Council opposition, and follows the first gathering of the Friends of Syria group in Tunisia in February.
But the group does not include Russia and China, which have blocked unified international action on Syria at UN Security Council level.
Syrian state news agency (SANA) said the meeting in Istanbul “is a series of related circles of conspiracy against Syria as the participants in it are enemies of Syria, not its friends”.
Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim Al Thani, Qatar’s prime minister, said “words needed to be turned into action on the ground”, while Nabil el-Araby said it was time for the international community to “bravely address the situation in Syria”.
Calling for tighter sanctions and for ways to hold Syrian leaders to account for abuses, Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, said before the meeting that the US focus in Istanbul would be to “intensify” an array of international sanctions.
She also said the meeting would discuss sending more humanitarian aid to those in need, despite Syrian efforts to block it.
The meeting comes with Syrian security forces continuing their assault on opposition strongholds, seemingly in defiance of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s formal commitment to a six-point peace plan from UN and Arab League envoy Kofi Annan.
“The Syrian government is staying true to form, unfortunately, making a deal and then refusing to implement it,” Clinton said. “And as of today, regime forces continue to shell civilians, lay siege to neighbourhoods, and even target places of worship.”
Clinton reaffirmed that Washington was looking at sending non-lethal support such as communications gear and medical aid to an increasingly armed opposition.
She also called for strengthening the unity of the opposition, including the leading Syrian National Council, and promoting their “democratic vision” so that it can “represent an alternative” to the Assad government.
She vowed to press the opposition “very hard” to properly represent Arabs, Kurds, Sunni Muslims, Alawites, Christians, Druze and other ethnic and religious groups.
She also said the US planned to raise the issue of holding Syrian leaders and security forces to account for suspected abuses amid allegations of murder, torture and indiscriminate shelling of civilian areas. “We want to discuss how to help the Syrian people prepare to hold those responsible who have been committing these terrible acts of violence,” Clinton told a press conference with Prince Saud al-Faisal, the Saudi foreign minister.
More than 9 000 people, UN officials estimate, have died in the year since Assad’s forces began crushing pro-democracy protests inspired by revolutions that have swept the leaders of Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen from power.
In Riyadh, the US and Gulf Arab states urged Annan to produce a “timeline for next steps” if Assad failed to stop the bloodshed despite his acceptance of the peace plan.
Annan’s plan calls for a commitment to stop all armed violence, a daily two-hour humanitarian ceasefire, media access to all areas affected by the fighting, an inclusive Syrian-led political process, a right to demonstrate, and release of arbitrarily detained people.
Annan is due to brief the UN Security Council today about his efforts to have his peace plan implemented. — Al Jazeera.
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