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Friends of Syria Meeting
The group, composed of 83 member states, including Turkey, United States, France, United Kingdom, and the Arab League, declares the support for the legitimate measures the people of Syria are taken in order for them to survive.
By this decision, Syrian National Council, which is an umbrella for many opposition groups, actually becomes the representative of the Syrian people the Western countries will work with, just like they did with the Transitional National Council a year ago.
The Syrian National Council on Sunday committed to paying salaries to the Free Syrian Army, a group consisting mainly of defectors from the regular Syrian army. FSA is now the most important force challenging Bashar al-Assad.
A member of the Syrian friends group said that arming the Syrian defectors could cost millions of dollars, but it would also motivate many Syrian soldiers to abandon their president and shift sides, and it would also bring the morale of the regime down.
On Sunday, American State Secretary Hillary Clinton announced that a $12 million support would be offered Syrian opposition, practically doubling the amount allocated to humanitarian aid.
Syria National Council said that more help was needed at a time when about one million people were in need. One SNC member advanced the minimum sum of $1 million each day. He said that if people of Syria did not feel protected, and helped, the entire move would be in vain.
SNC demanded support for the Free Syrian Army, buffer zones to protect the civilian population and relief and medical support. The group warned that the resistance against Assad could not go on forever, and it was necessary that Bashar al-Assad made good on his promise to implement the six-point Annan plan.
However, they warned, offering Assad an indefinite time span to implement the program was a mistake because it offered him more time to kill. Therefore, the “Friends of Syria” demanded Kofi Annan, the U.N.-Arab League special envoy to Syria, to set a timeline to his plan, so that the regime may not stall, as it had done in many occasions.
Kofi Annan is expected to brief the United Nations Security Council on the results of his plan so far on Monday, during a closed session. His plan was accepted by all parties involved in the Syrian conflict, including by president Assad, and his staunch supporters Russia, China, and even Iran. Russia and China did not respond to the invitation to attend Friends of Syria meeting, Iran was not even invited.
The plan refers to the immediate end of bloodshed, to the pullout of the troops from the cities and towns, to the end of rebellious acts, to allowing the medical relief, to starting the dialogue between Syrian government and opposition.
The plan was adopted in a silenced procedure by the United Nations Security Council two weeks ago as presidential statement, and was successful in convincing all sides mainly because it did not demand the resignation of the presidential regime.
Both Russian and Iranian officials insisted that the fate of the president of Syria would be decided by the people of Syrian and could not be imposed by the demand of the international community.
The Syrian president Bashar al-Assad announced that he would spare no effort to make the plan work, but warned that the Syrian army would withdraw only when the “terrorist acts” have stopped throughout the national territory.
The Syrian foreign ministry said over the weekend that the regime had a right to defend itself and nothing could prevent them from protecting the people against the attacks of what the regime calls “terrorist acts.” Syrian regime has always considered the unrest in the country a “conspiracy” against Syria, and accused the rebels of being on the payroll of the Western states.
On Saturday, the Syrian regime announced that the “conspiracy” in Syria was over and that the state was no longer attacked by anything. The regime committed to implementing reforms as soon as the violence was over.
Still, on Sunday fresh fighting erupted across the regime on Monday morning, killing three people, according to the observers in Syria. At least two people were killed and 11 people were killed, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. A person was killed in a bomb explosion in Aleppo.
Local Coordination Committed said that the troops launched an arresting campaign in Daraa province, which is the hotbed of the country. Homes of the activists are said to have been burnt by the troops. CNN reports that 80 people were killed in Syria across the country on Sunday alone, bringing the death toll close to 1000, according to U.N. activists.
The Syrian National Council president Burhan Ghalioun told the Friends of Syria that his group was dedicated to creating an inclusive, democratic government, without discrimination based on religious and ethnic bases. He pledged to respect the civil rights of the population for all Syrians, if and when the president Assad is toppled.
He said that the world was watching the tragic scenes coming from Syria, while the regime was benefiting from the hesitance of the international community.
Earlier this week, the Syrian National Council convened in Istanbul, Turkey, to talk about the future of their cooperation. On that occasion the movement showed its internal divide, as the Kurdish leader has walked out accusing that the grievances of the Kurdish community were not considered by the opposition group.
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