Qatari Foreign Minister HE Dr Khalid bin Mohamed al-Attiyah (second right) with (from left to right) Britain’s Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Hugh Robertson, Egyptian Deputy Foreign Minister Hamdi Loza, Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, US Secretary of State John Kerry, Italian Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini, British Foreign Secretary William Hague, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash posing for a group photograph during the Friends of Syria meeting in London yesterday.
By Denise Marray/Gulf Times Correspondent London
The Friends of Syria Core Group are determined to reach a political settlement that protects all the people of Syria – including Alawite and other minorities, US Secretary of State John Kerry said yesterday in London.
Kerry was addressing the press after a meeting in London of the Friends of Syria Core Group hosted by UK Foreign Secretary William Hague. The group comprises Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Turkey, the US, the UK, Egypt, Jordan, Italy, Germany and France.
“Assad may think that today he is doing better and this process is somehow going to come to a close with him sitting pretty – but we are not going away – the opposition is not going away,” Kerry explained.
He said that the Friends of Syria are united in their determination to stand together against Assad. “I don’t think anybody today felt deterred one iota in the notion that there might be a better route - another route other than a political settlement which can only be brought about when he (Assad) is prepared to negotiate,” he said.
Of the work done by UN special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi who stepped down from his mediating role this week, Kerry said: “He performed valiantly against great odds. But if all the parties aren’t prepared to perform according to the standards that they have accepted to negotiate on – there’s nothing a negotiator or intermediary can do.”
Kerry did not elaborate on questions about the deployment of arms against Assad.
“I am not going to discuss specific weapon systems or otherwise except to say that every possible avenue that is available is going to be pursued by one country or another,” he commented.
He added: “We are providing non-lethal aid – but I will say that out of today’s meeting every facet or what can be done is going to be ramped up: every facet. That includes political effort, the aid to the opposition, economic efforts and sanctions.”
Regarding the possible use of chlorine as a weapon of war, Kerry noted that if reports of its use as a chemical weapon were true and could be proved then its use would be in contravention of the chemical weapons treaty and the weapons convention that Syria had signed up for. If the convention had been breached then there would be consequences, he said, noting that it was also open to the International Criminal Court to hold the perpetrator accountable.
Kerry said he had seen only “raw data” that suggested that there may have been a number of instances in which chlorine had been used, though this evidence was not yet confirmed.
He reiterated the continuing commitment of the Friends of Syria to “continue to be helpful to the Free Syrian Army which”, he said, “has clearly improved.” He observed: “It has gained in its capacity and command and control and is being supported in a more co-ordinated way than it was over the last year as one country or another may have been supporting one group or another – now that is much more concentrated.” He said: “Under difficult circumstances they are holding their own and making gains in certain parts of the country.”
Regarding the failure of aid to reach desperate and starving citizens caught up in the conflict, Kerry said: “Our patience is gone: we are going to join with other countries in an effort to guarantee accountability through the UN. We are determined that people will be able to get aid – people are being starved to death.”
The official communiqué issued by the Friends of Syria called upon the international community to join the Arab League, UN, US, Turkey and EU in rejecting the illegitimate elections planned by Assad for June 3. Kerry asked how a country with half the population displaced, thousands ‘hunkered down’ in terror in their homes, millions in refugee camps and almost one million scattered throughout the region could possibly hold fair or meaningful elections.
Massive tunnel bomb hits Syrian army base
Rebels detonated 60 tonnes of explosives packed underneath a large Syrian army base, blowing a hillside hundreds of metres into the air, an insurgent in the operation who provided footage of the attack said yesterday.
The casualty toll from the blast was not immediately known. An Islamic Front commander said that his brigade dug an 850-m (2,800-ft) tunnel underneath Wadi al-Deif base, which is surrounded by rebels but has remained inside government control for the entirety of the three-year-long civil war.
Footage provided by the commander of the base, which stretches over a large area of land, showed the ground balloon up before breaking into a cloud of earth that engulfs the area.
The commander, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he did not know how many government soldiers had been killed but said it would help rebels break into the base, which has been used for attacks in the surrounding province of Idlib. Page 4
