At the end of a marathon meeting in Istanbul that ended at 1:00 in the morning, the foreign ministers of the 11 Westerns and Muslim country members of the Friends of Syria, Italy included, called for the launch of negotiations toward a political solution capable of ending the bloodbath.
123 million dollars in non-lethal aid from the USA
The Syrian opposition reassured an international community concerned with the advance of the Jihadist component, that there would be no vendettas and that weapons would not end up in the wrong hands. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry announced an additional $123 million in non-lethal aid to the armed opposition.
The meeting took place in a climate marked by the recent admission by the rebellion’s spearheading al Nusra Front that it was a member of the al Qaeda network – a disturbing confirmation for those Western countries backing the Sunni rebellion.
Syrian National coalition “rejects and condemns” terrorism and extremism
In a note issued in the margins of the meeting the Syrian national coalition pledged to “reject and condemn” terrorism and extremism and to ensure that the weapons supplied to them would not end up in the wrong hands.
Dassù: Italy believes there is still room for a political solution
Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs Marta Dassù said that Italy believed there was still room for a political solution. The final document of the Istanbul meeting calls for a transition leading to post-Assad elections, without the current President and his associates, for whom “there is no place in the future of Syria”.