http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/...7MD0GZ20111121Britain meets Syria opposition, condemns crackdown
By
Stefano Ambrogi
LONDON | Mon Nov 21, 2011 12:47pm EST
(Reuters) - World powers will do as much as they can to turn up the heat on the Syrian government, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said on Monday, calling President Bashar al-Assad's crackdown on eight months of protests "appalling and unacceptable."
Hague held talks with representatives of Syrian opposition groups on Monday, intensifying British contacts with them just days after he appointed a former ambassador to lead London's coordination with Assad's opponents.
"I think the Assad regime will find that more and more governments around the world are willing to work with the opposition ... as part of the increasing pressure on this regime," Hague said after the meeting.
The talks follow the expiry at the weekend of an Arab League deadline for Assad to pull the military out of urban centers, free political prisoners and start a dialogue under the 22-member group's initiative to end the bloodshed in
Syria.
Assad said in an interview published on Sunday he would not bow to international pressure to stop the crackdown on the protests against his rule in which the United Nations says 3,500 people have been killed.
On Monday activists said Syrian forces killed two youths when they stormed a neighborhood in the city of Homs looking for a football star who has been leading protests against Assad.
The state news agency said security forces killed four "terrorists" in Homs, including one of the most wanted men in the city. It also said an ambulance driver and his colleague were wounded when an "armed terrorist group" fired at them.
Syrian authorities have barred most independent journalists from entering the country during the revolt, making it difficult to verify accounts from activists and officials.
"The behavior of that regime is appalling and unacceptable and of course we will do what we can to support democracy in Syria in the future," Hague told the BBC earlier on Monday.
He said international pressure had already been ratcheted up on Syria, pointing to European Union sanctions on Syria's oil exports. "We are working this week on a further round of sanctions which I hope we can agree next week," Hague added.
An EU diplomat said that at a meeting in Brussels on Monday, EU states discussed extended sanctions on Syria expected to be agreed ahead of a meeting of foreign ministers on December 1.
He said the sanctions were likely to target more individuals responsible for the violence and entities that support and fund the Syrian government, and to include a range of steps against the financial and banking sectors.
On top of the U.S. and European sanctions, Syria has alienated former ally
Turkey and, in a dramatic deepening of its regional isolation, been suspended by the Arab League and threatened with Arab sanctions.
But international consensus over Syria has proved elusive.
Russia, which joined
China last month in vetoing a Western-drafted U.N. Security Council resolution condemning Assad's crackdown, accused Western nations of undermining the chances of a peaceful resolution in Syria.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the West was urging Assad's opponents not to seek compromise.
"We see a situation in which the Arab League is calling for an end to violence and the start of talks, while absolutely contradictory calls are coming from Western capitals and the capitals of some regional countries," he said.
Those nations, which Lavrov did not name, are "directly recommending that the opposition not enter dialogue with the Assad regime," he said, according to Interfax. "This is like a political provocation on an international scale."
ATTACK ON BUS
Early on Monday gunmen opened fire on a convoy of Turkish buses carrying pilgrims inside Syria, Turkish media reported.
Reports of the incident were fragmentary and Turkish authorities said they were still trying to establish what had happened.
Alongside the mainly peaceful street protests against Assad, army deserters have launched a series of attacks against forces loyal to the president.
Within hours of Assad ignoring Saturday's Arab League deadline, residents said two rocket-propelled grenades hit a major ruling party building in Damascus, the first such reported attack by insurgents inside the capital.
A statement by the Syrian Free Army, comprising army defectors and based in neighboring Turkey, initially said it carried out the attack but later withdrew its claim.
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem denied any attack had taken place. But a witness said security police blocked off the square where the building was located and reported seeing smoke rising from it and fire trucks in the area.
It was the second reported hit on a high-profile target in a week, underscoring a growing challenge to Assad who blames "armed terrorists" for the unrest in which authorities say at least 1,100 soldiers and police have been killed.
In an interview with the British Sunday Times newspaper, Assad said he had no choice but to pursue the crackdown on unrest because his foes were armed.
"The conflict will continue and the pressure to subjugate Syria will continue. Syria will not bow down," he said.
Syria's main opposition group, the Syrian National Council, said that in the event of Assad's overthrow, it envisaged a transitional period lasting up to 18 months to agree a new constitution and hold a parliamentary election.
But some prominent Assad opponents said more work was needed on uniting the opposition to bring about his downfall.
Hague said his meeting with the opposition did not mean Britain was about to offer them formal recognition, "partly because there are differing groups."
"There isn't a single national council as there was in Libya ... and the international community has not yet reached that point," he said.
At the talks he met representatives from the National Council and the National Coordination Body, which has been more explicit in its opposition to military intervention in Syria.
"We discussed the situation in Syria and the possibility of international protection to ... stop the bloodshed and provide protection for civilians," SNC chairman Burhan Ghalioun said.
He told reporters the council wanted the West to work with Turkey and Arab states so that Assad could be "given a strong signal that he should leave and abandon power."
(Additional reporting by
Adrian Croft in London, Steve Gutterman in Moscow, Khaled Yacoub Oweis in Amman,
Jonathon Burch in Ankara,
David Brunnstrom in Brussels; Writing by
Dominic Evans; Editing by Jon Hemming)
Re: Syria
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Originally Posted by Peterle Matteo
Russian warships have entered Syrian territorial waters in an aggressive move designed to prevent any NATO-led attack on the country under the guise of a “humanitarian intervention”.
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