Qatar and Saudi Arabia call for arming opposition forces against the President Bashar al-Assad

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Defense News - Syria

 
 
Thursday, March 1, 2012, 10:19 AM
 
Qatar and Saudi Arabia call for arming opposition forces against the President Bashar al-Assad.
DAMASCUS, (SANA) - Foreign and Expatriates Ministry Spokesman, Dr. Jihad Maqdisi, on Wednesday, February 29, 2012, described the Qatari and Saudi calls for arming the Syrian opposition as hostile to Syria, placing on those who announce such calls the political responsibility for the bloodshed in Syria.
     
Foreign and Expatriates Ministry Spokesman, Dr. Jihad Maqdisi, on Wednesday, February 29, 2012, described the Qatari and Saudi calls for arming the Syrian opposition as hostile to Syria, placing on those who announce such calls the political responsibility for the bloodshed in Syria.
Tunisian foreign minister Rafik Abdessalem, center opens the Conference on Syria in Tunis, Tunisia, Friday Feb. 24, 2012.
     

"The Syrian response to such calls was reserved. We would like the brothers in Qatar and Saudi Arabia or whomsoever to contribute to getting the opposition figures to act rationally and come to the dialogue table, and not to arming the opposition and shedding the Syrian blood, for which they are fully responsible as they are consciously shedding it," Maqdisi told a press conference at the Ministry's headquarters.

Qatar’s prime minister said Wednesday, February 29, 2012, he was in favor of delivering arms to the Syrian opposition that is battling President Bashar al-Assad’s regime. The Qatari prime minister also reiterated that his country is in favor of sending an international peacekeeping force to Syria, with an Arab “core.”

Representatives of more than 70 countries and organizations took part in a conference in the Tunisian capital, Tunis, Friday, February 24, 2012, aimed at supporting the Syrian opposition. Getting aid to civilians caught up in Syria's violence will be high on the agenda.