Saturday, May 25, 2013

Syrian 'opposition': 'We will negotiate only when we receive more weapons & Assad is removed!'

'Syrian Army in al Qusayr' 
"... Leaders of the fractured Syrian opposition, meanwhile, have given no such pledge to the United States, as they gather in Istanbul to determine a leader following the resignation of cleric Moaz Alkhatib in March. In recent days, the Syrian National Coalition has said it would not attend the conference in Geneva unless the premise of the talks was the removal of Syrian President Bashar al-Assadfrom power. In addition, Gen. Salim Idris, the commander of the rebel's Supreme Military Council, which typically supports the SNC, said he won't attend unless the U.S. and its allies give him more advanced anti-tank and anti-aircraft weaponry before the conference, a demand that is unlikely to be met......
Each day of silence increases the pressure on Secretary of State John Kerry to bring the opposition to the table for an event U.S. officials previewed as "the most serious effort in the last two years to get the Syrian government to sit down and negotiate with the Syrian opposition." (The State Department did not respond to a request for comment on the preconditions the opposition set ahead of the talks.)..."

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