The Coalition’s political committee on Tuesday morning met with the ambassadors of the Friends of Syria Group in Istanbul. The Conferees stressed the importance of an agreement reached last week by the Syrian Coalition and the National Coordination Commission in Brussels, as well as recent consultations with rebel factions to form a new Free Syrian Army (FSA) High Military Command and a new military council.
Members of the political committee pointed to the Assad regime’s forced evacuation of residents from the Mezza district in Damascus in order to resettle families of the foreign militias fighting alongside its forces, warning of the regime’s plans to change the demography of the region and the consequences of the continued silence over the regime’s use of starvation as a weapon against some rebel-held areas.
The meeting also discussed the UN special envoy Staffan de Mistura’s visit to Syria and Iran, and President Bashar al-Assad’s rejection of a political solution in favor of a military one.
Members of the political committee called on the ambassadors to provide support for the civil governance project within safe zones established by Turkey in northern Syria, as well as supporting the FSA to maintain security and stability in the area, and to ensure the return of the refugees.
Political committee members also called for more pressure on the Iranian and Assad regimes to sit at the negotiating table to reach a political solution based on the Geneva communique.
