While the blood
of Syrians is shed fighting for their freedom against the government loyals in
the multiple battlefronts, several meetings are taken place between the various
opposition factions to prepare the next Geneva summit of 22 January. If the 9th
and 10th of January, the Spanish government acted as host for a first meeting
in Cordoba in order to assist in the search for binding agreements for all
dissident groups. A few days later the Foreign Affairs Ministers of the "eleven"
countries friends of Syria - namely, Germany, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, United
States, France, Britain, Italy, Jordan, Qatar and Turkey – met in Paris to
establish a common action policy and reaffirm a number of commitments to end the doubts of the opposition, including the
ouster of President Bashar al-Assad .
Finally, the
Syrian National Coalition - which brings together various opposition groups – met
in Istanbul on January 17 to discuss their participation in the meeting they
call "Geneva II". In the previous days, discrepancies, that have
weakened the opposition since the start of the conflict, arose again. Prior to
its conclusion, there were several resignations of several members. Nevertheless,
the decision to come to Geneva II was adopted by a majority of 58 votes in favour
to14 against and two abstentions. Both meetings in Córdoba and Istanbul have made
clear that the first essential condition for the opposition to end this
terrible civil war is that Bashar al-Assad and his acolytes leave office Something that seems so little feasible now as
was at the beginning of the conflict. To this Bashar declared, had I wanted I would have given up from the beginning.
We stand on guard for our country.
