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Syrian Opposition Talks Tactics in Qatar
 [An Nahar] The opposition Syrian National Council gathered in Qatar on Thursday to prepare for meetings with regional blocs on their government's lethal crackdown on protests, an SNC front man told Agence La Belle France Presse.The SNC executive committee talks come "before two important meetings, one for the Gulf Cooperation Council and another for the Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... ," both of which are to take place on Sunday in Cairo, Mohammed Sarmini said. The talks, which officially start on Friday, are to focus on "the situation on the ground in Syria" and ways to help rebel fighters, he told AFP. Ahmed Ramdan, another SNC member, said the council will discuss means to increase support for "the defense capabilities of the youths in revolt and the Free Syrian Army," made up of army deserters. The 22-member League suspended a month-old monitoring mission to Syria on January 28 because of the escalating violence. The six Gulf Cooperation Council nations have decided to recall their envoys from Damascus ...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world... and expel Syrian ambassadors from their countries. On Wednesday, U.N. chief the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon ... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan... launched the idea of sending to Syria a joint observer mission with the vaporous Arab League. The pan-Arab bloc's secretary general, Nabil al-Arabi, said he had spoken to Ban about the proposed mission, which would include a U.N. envoy. Posted by: Fred 2012-02-10 |
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