What started as an intention to gather the international community to find a solution to the unfolding tragedy in Syria following Russia and China's U.N. veto, resulted in the first meeting of the Friends of Syria group meeting yesterday which was held in Tunisia and attended by 69 foreign affairs ministers and representatives from eight international organizations.
During yesterday's meeting in Tunisia, Foreign Affairs Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu called on the United Nations as well as Damascus for humanitarian aid to reach people in need and for a fast political transitional period to be initiated. The nations that participated in yesterday's meeting also decided to recognize the Syrian National Council as "one of the Syrian public's representatives."
FIRST ISTANBUL, THEN PARIS
The next 'Friends of Syria Group' meeting will be held in Istanbul in March.
If the Assad administration does not take a step back by the time this meeting is held, then the National Council will most likely be named as the 'sole Syrian representative'. The next successive meeting will be held in France.
The memorandum released from yesterday's meeting contained the following items:
1-The request was made for a comprehensive political transitional period to take place in Syria.
2- A call was reiterated for the National Council to establish a government and for Assad to collaborate with the opposition.