A Syrian rebel leader said on Saturday only force could end the country's two-year conflict and ruled out the possibility of any negotiation with President Bashar al-Assad's administration other than over its exit.
"There is no solution with this regime through negotiation. This (conflict) will not be settled other than by force," Brigadier Selim Idris, head of a military command, told reporters on the sidelines of Istanbul's meeting of Syrian opposition leaders and their international backers.
"Maybe in its final stages, when the regime feels it has lost everything, it might want to negotiate for its exit."
Earlier, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said that the Syrian opposition must distance itself from "terrorist and extremist" forces and said Germany was skeptical about supplying weapons to the rebels.
"We expect from the opposition that they clearly distance themselves in Syria from terrorist and extremist forces," Westerwelle told reporters at the meeting.
"We are skeptical as the German government when it comes to delivering weapons because we are concerned that weapons could fall into the wrong, namely extremist, hands, but it is a matter that must now be discussed in the European Union."
Meanwhile, Syrian
troops backed by pro-government gunmen fought fierce battles with
rebels in a strategic area in Homs province near the
Lebanese border, activists and state media in Damascus reported.
The
clashes around the contested town of Qusair, close to the Syria-Lebanon
boundary, had intensified over the past two weeks amid a fresh
offensive by the Syrian army and a pro-government militia known as
Popular Committees, backed by the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group.
The
border region near the provincial capital of Homs is strategic because
it links Damascus with the coastal enclave that is the heartland of
Syria's Alawites, a sect from which Assad hails, and is also home to the
country's two main seaports, Latakia and Tartus.
On the Lebanese
side of the border, schools were evacuated Saturday in the mostly Shiite
villages of al-Qasr, Bouweydah and Hawch amid fears that Syria's rebels
could target the residents. Later in the day, state-run National News
Agency reported that two rockets fell near al-Qasr, causing material
damage.
The U.N. Security Council has been deadlocked for months
on the Syrian war, and even the most modest attempts to end the
bloodshed have failed. Western and many Arab nations blame the conflict
on Assad's government.
Russia insists on assigning equal blame
for the suffering to the Syrian opposition and rebels fighting on the
ground, and has cast vetoes, along with China, to block draft council
resolutions.
On another note, the U.S. prepares to provide
far more nonlethal aid to opposition forces in Syria, the regime of
President Bashar Assad faces a new threat from European nations that
could determine whether a stronger international intervention might be
attempted.
The European Union arms embargo may
be allowed to expire at the end of May or modified to only block weapons
that are headed to Assad's government. Either course could be only
steps away from supplying the rebels with arms.
Assad's reaction to the increase in pressure would
be tested and might lead to stronger international action in the effort
to persuade him to step down.
U.S. Secretary
of State John Kerry is expected on Saturday to announce plans to give
opposition forces up to $130 million in defensive military supplies.
AP/LBCI/REUTERS
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