Syria's political opposition has postponed a meeting scheduled for Saturday in Istanbul to choose a prime minister to head a provisional government, Mohammad Sarmini of the Syrian National Council said on Thursday.
"The meeting may be held later in the week," he told Reuters by telephone. Opposition leaders had hoped to elect a prime minister to operate in rebel-controlled areas of Syria, threatened by a slide into chaos.
This after Western and Arab governments on Thursday pledged more political and material support for the civilian Syrian opposition and called for an immediate halt to arms supplies to the Assad government.
A final statement after a meeting of the "Friends of Syria" diplomatic group in Rome added: "The regime must immediately stop the indiscriminate bombardment against populated areas which are crimes against humanity and cannot remain unpunished".
It added: "The ministers pledged more political and material support to the (Syrian National) coalition as the sole legitimate representative of the Syrian people and to get more concrete assistance (into) Syria." They gave no detail of what kind of support would be supplied.
As for the United States, it plans for the first time to provide non-lethal aid, including food rations and medical supplies, to opposition fighters battling the Syrian government and it will more than double aid to the civilian opposition, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Thursday.
Speaking after talks with the Syrian opposition and mainly European and Arab countries supporting them, Kerry said that the United States would give the civilian opposition an additional $60 million to help them provide security.
Prior to the meeting, Kerry met with Syrian opposition Coalition Leader Ahmad Moaz Al Khatib for a first time in one of the Italian capital's hotels.
In turn, President Francois Hollande said on Thursday that France wanted to see a more open political dialogue on Syria that would "speak to all parties" in the two-year crisis.
"We want political dialogue. We think that this dialogue must find a new form so that it speaks to all parties," Hollande said, after discussing the crisis with Russian President Vladimir Putin during a visit to Moscow.
Hollande said that while France and Russia both wanted to prevent the break up of Syria, they had different ideas on how to achieve that.
Speaking ahead of this meeting with Putin at the Kremlin on Thursday afternoon, Hollande told the Ekho Moskvy radio station that Putin's position on Syria can determine how soon peace will come to Syria.
"A lot will depend on President Putin's stance," he said. "We must finally launch the political dialogue" in Syria.
Hollande said he is encouraged by the fact that Russia has acknowledged the influence of the Syrian opposition but would like to see Russia promoting talks on political transition in Syria.
"We see that the Syrian opposition grows stronger and taking on legitimacy as well as some responsibility for the future of the country, and this opposition does not see itself getting engaged in a dialogue with Bashar Assad," he said. "We're going to discuss this and hopefully will have a discussion about power transition."
Hollande also lauded Putin for "creating conditions" for the opposition to engage with the Syrian government.
Following the meeting,
Russia and France agreed on
Thursday that Syria must not be allowed to break up but differed on other
aspects of the two-year-old conflict, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.
"Despite the existing differences in the Russia and French
positions (on Syria), we are for keeping Syria an integral, democratic
state," Putin told a joint news conference after talks with French
President Francois Hollande.
Western and Arab officials are due to meet with the Syrian
opposition in Istanbul on Monday to discuss the possibility of providing
military and humanitarian aid to opposition fighters, Reuters quoted a European
diplomatic source as saying.
On the field
The Joint Command of the Free Syrian Army said that Ansar
al-Tawhid in the Sayf al-Sham Division claim to have killed a Hezbollah
member in Akraba after members of the Damascus-based Revolutionary
Military Council tapped wireless waves used by Hezbollah members. “They
are in the region of Sayyida Zaynab and Akraba,” the council said.
In
turn, Syrian activists said rebels are clashing with government forces
around a historic 12th century mosque inside the walled old city of
Aleppo.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights
says the clashes Thursday are concentrated around the Umayyad Mosque
with rebels controlling parts of it and government troops holding
another part. The Observatory, which relies on reports from
activists on the ground, also says rebels continue to battle troops for
control of a police academy west of Aleppo.
For its part, SANA
reported that a car bomb explosion took place near the Sahara Mosque in
the new Akrama neighborhood in Homs’ Wadi al-Dabab, adding that
preliminary information stated that the blast left several victims and
major material damages in its wake.
REUTERS/AP/LBCI
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