Brussels, 20/02/2012 (Agence Europe) - The meeting of the Friends of the People of Syria, which will take place in Tunis on 24 February, may be the opportunity to tackle the question of humanitarian aid to Syria, the high representative stressed on Friday 17 February. “I hope that the meeting will give us the opportunity to look at how we can support humanitarian efforts”, stressed Catherine Ashton. She explained that she would work with the United Nations, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and the Arab League, “as we did on the situation in Libya, on the humanitarian side of the challenges we faced”. Ashton said that the EU hoped to work “as closely as possible to all those who are prepared to commit to support the humanitarian needs” of the Syrians.
On Monday, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said that it was in talks with the Syrian authorities to negotiate a suspension of hostilities to provide humanitarian aid to the population. “The ICRC is looking into ways of channelling the aid, including a cessation of hostilities in the worst-affected areas to facilitate access to the Syrian Red Crescent and the ICRC to the populations in need”, said a spokesperson, Bijan Farnoudi.
For his part, the highest-ranking officer of the American Armed Forces, General Martin Dempsey, said on Sunday that military intervention would be “very difficult” and that it would be “premature” to arm the opposition movement.
SNC present in Tunis. On Monday, the Tunisian foreign affairs minister, Rafik Abdessalem, announced that the “Syrian National Council, and other opposition components, will be represented at the meeting in Tunis.”
And with protests continuing in Damascus, the regime on Monday kept the capital in a state of alert. It also reinforced its troops in Homs, seeming to prepare for an offensive to take back parts of the city held by the insurrectionists. The militants are called upon to evacuate women and children from the Baba Amr area of Homs, with the city having been under bombardment for the last 16 consecutive days. On Friday, the high representative “firmly condemned the level of violence in recent weeks committed against civilians in the blind bombing of residential areas (…). The violence has reached unspeakable levels of criminality and destruction.” (CG/transl.fl)