World leaders and Syrian opposition are attending the “Friends of Syria” forum in Tunisia, seeking a solution to the escalating bloodshed. Humanitarian aid will top the agenda, amid rising suspicions this may be a pretext for military intervention.
Western leaders from over 70 nations, including the US, France, UK and Turkey, have converged on Tunis to meet with their Arab League counterparts with a view to cranking up the pressure on President Assad’s regime.
Representatives from the Syrian opposition will also be in attendance.
Syrian activists have reported over 70 people dead, including two foreign journalists, in the escalating bloodshed of the last couple of days.
The Friends of Syria are expected to put an ultimatum to Assad government – either broker a ceasefire to allow aid group to give help to civilians suffering in the conflict or face as-yet-unspecified additional punitive measures.
These punitive measures are likely to take the form of tight economic sanctions to put a stranglehold on Damascus and the Assad regime.
Tunisia’s presidential spokesperson Adnan Mancer told the Associated Press ahead of the summit that the Tunisian government will propose a military peacekeeping force to be deployed in Syria to curtail the violence.
At a conference in London on Thursday, US secretary of state Hilary Clinton said that countries should “aggressively implement” measures they had agreed upon. She also stated that, "The obstruction of a few countries cannot be allowed to stop the world community from coming to the aid of the Syrian people."
Both Russia and China have boycotted the summit on the basis that the Friends of Syria are biased in favor of regime change in Syria. Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Aleksandr Lukashevich stated why Russia objects to the summit.
“The opposition is invited, the legal authorities are not. This means we have here what we had in Libya: a contact group was created. There is a feeling that it all aims at supporting ONE part in the country's internal conflict.”
Russia and China had previously blocked UN resolutions on Syria demanding the ouster of Assad, believing them to be skewed in the opposition’s favor. They remain the only countries still in dialogue with President Assad.
RT correspondent Maria Finoshina, currently in Damascus, interviewed Dr. Balsam Abu Bulla, a doctor of political science. He doubted the motives of the Friends of Syria summit and alluded to an ulterior motive on the part of Western powers.
“They want a political uprising here in Syria to make the country weak and then go to Iran and Hezbollah. This is a real plan on behalf of democracy and humanitarian aid human rights,” he told.
RT
