UNITED NATIONS: The main Syrian opposition has called on the UN Security Council to apply greater “international pressure” on President Bashar Al Assad to halt the country’s bitter conflict.
But the first meeting between the Syrian National Coalition and the 15-member Security Council on Friday highlighted international divisions over the war and the obstacles to organising a peace conference.
New coalition president Ahmad Jarba said he told the council: “We need far more international pressure to force the Assad regime to accept a political transition.”
Jarba made no direct appeal for arms, but he added: “I said that as long as the Assad regime is waging war against the Syrian people, the opposition must have the right to self-defence.”
The coalition has been on a tour seeking to put across its political objectives and press for western weapons supplies. Jarba and other top coalition leaders met French President Francois Hollande in Paris on Wednesday and US Secretary of State John Kerry in New York on Thursday.
The Security Council held an informal meeting with the coalition, because Russia, Assad’s main international backer, said an official meeting would confer recognition on the opposition group, according to diplomats.
Britain’s UN ambassador Mark Lyall Grant, whose country organised the meeting, said the opposition had put across a “positive” message opposing extremism and backing democracy in Syria.
There was little sign, however, of a breakthrough in efforts to organise a follow up to the Syria peace conference held last year.
The coalition opposes any role for Assad in a transitional government and insists that it must have full control of the army and security forces.
“Clearly there are still some obstacles to be overcome” for a new peace conference, commented Russia’s UN envoy Vitaly Churkin who said there should be talks “without pre-conditions.”
AFP
