The political committee on Tuesday morning met with the Group of Friends of Syria ambassadors in Istanbul. The Conferees stressed the importance of the agreement reached last week by the Syrian Coalition and the National Coordination Commission in Brussels, and also the importance Syrian Coalition’s consulting with rebel factions to form a new FSA High Military Command and a new military council.
Members of the political committee pointed to the Assad regime’s ordering of many residents of the Mezza district in Damascus to evacuate their homes in order to resettle families of the foreign militias fighting alongside its forces. They warns of the regime’s plans to change the demography of the region and also of the consequences of the continued silence over the regime’s use of starvation by as a weapon against some rebel-held areas.
The meeting also discussed the international envoy Staffan de Mistura’s visit to Syria and Iran, and Assad rejection of a political solution and his insistence on a military one.
Members of the political committee called on the ambassadors to provide support for the civil governance project in the safe zone Turkey is establishing in northern Syria and for supporting the Free Syrian Army to maintain the security and stability in this area and to ensure the return of the refugees.
They also called for putting pressure on the Iranian and Assad regimes to sit at the negotiating to reach a political solution based on the Geneva Communique. (Source: Syrian Coalition)