U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry meets with Syrian opposition leader Moaz al-Khatib, left, Saturday, on Saturday, in Istanbul, Turkey. (AP)

Sunday 21 April 2013

ISTANBUL: The main international backers of Syria’s opposition gather in Istanbul with the opposition hoping Western and Arab countries will step up their support, including with arms.

The 11-nation core group of the “Friends of Syria” — including the US, European nations and Arab countries — will hold talks with key figures in the opposition battling President Bashar Assad.

The opposition is pressing demands for foreign allies to supply arms to the rebels, but analysts said it was unlikely Istanbul meeting will mark a major breakthrough.

Speaking to US lawmakers this week, US Secretary of State John Kerry said the talks would be an effort to “get everybody on the same page” but also voiced caution about major new steps.

“We’re trying to proceed carefully, to make sure that we’re not contributing to a worse mess, but that we’re actually finding a constructive path forward,” Kerry said.

Analysts said expectations for the meeting were fairly low and that much of the talk would focus on getting the transitional government up and running in areas of Syria under rebel control, mainly in the north.

Michael Stephens, a Qatar-based researcher for the RUSI think tank, said he doubted there would be any movement on meeting the opposition demands for arms. “That debate is still well and truly stuck in the mud…. We’re stuck in a merry-go-round,” he said.

Meanwhile, at least 69 people, many of them opposition fighters, have been killed in a four-day battle pitting Syrian insurgents against government forces in Jdaidet Al-Fadl near Damascus, a monitoring group said yesterday.
“Regime troops are trying to seize total control of the town of Jdaidet Al-Fadl” southwest of Damascus, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

“Sixty-nine people were killed in violence raging there over the past four days,” added the Britain-based watchdog, citing activists on the ground, who said many were killed in shelling and also in summary executions by the army. Violence also raged in Sunni areas of the nearby Christian town of Jdaidet Artuz.