Syria opposition group boosted at Morocco meet
Worldwide, Daily news | ankakh | December 12, 2012 16:25Countries opposed to President Bashar al-Assad’s regime meet in Morocco on Wednesday for talks on Syria’s 21-month conflict after the US gave official backing to a new opposition bloc.
The Friends of Syria group meeting of Arab and Western states coincides with battlefield gains by Islamist rebels suspected of Al-Qaeda links, and a rapidly deteriorating refugee situation as winter sets in.
Headlining the talks , which are to begin in Marrakesh at 0930 GMT, are two key issues, namely the political transition after Assad’s eventual fall and mobilising humanitarian aid.
With the total death toll from the civil war now topping 42,000, according to monitors, the UN refugee agency said the number of Syrian refugees who had fled to neighbouring countries and North Africa had now passed half a million.
But in a major boost for the newly formed opposition National Coalition, US President Barack Obama endorsed the group as “the legitimate representative” of the Syrian people.
“We have made a decision that the Syrian opposition coalition is now inclusive enough, is reflective and representative enough of the Syrian population, that we consider them the legitimate representative of the Syrian people,” Obama said on the eve of the Morocco meeting.
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