Syrian Opposition
leaders on Wednesday met US Secretary of State John Kerry and G8 foreign
ministers in London to seek a "political" breakthrough of the country's
civil unrest on the sidelines of an official G8 ministerial meet with
North Korean nuclear crisis and Iran high on the agenda.
At
the discussion with the G8 ministers, Syrian opposition prime Minister
Ghassan Hitto and Syrian National Coalition vice-presidents George Sabra
and Soheir Atassi and other civilian leaders pushed for lifting an arms
embargo on Syria to topple the President Bashar al-Assad regime.
"I
will be joining and convening some of those meetings to discuss the
urgent humanitarian needs and the urgent need for a political and
diplomatic breakthrough," British foreign secretary William Hague told
reporters in reference to the meeting.
"This
(Syria) is turning into the greatest humanitarian catastrophe of the
21st century so far and we cannot watch this happen," he added.
Syria
slipped into its third year of the devastating civil war this year as
the rebels have been waging an uprising to oust Assad in which an
estimated 70,000 people said to have been killed and millions forced to
flee their honmes.
Syria's
Opposition umbrella group the National Coalition is recognised by the
US and UK and many other Western and Arab countries as the sole
representative of the Syrian people.
The Syrian Opposition was formally granted an Arab League seat last month.
The
ongoing civil unrest in the country is at the top of the agenda of the
two-day foreign minister's meeting from today being hosted by the UK in
the run-up to the official summit of the Group of Eight nations-Britain,
Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the US in Lough Erne,
Northern Ireland in June.
In keeping with the London
meet's central theme of conflict prevention and resolution, Kerry is
also set to meet his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in a bid to
persuade Moscow, a key ally of Damascus, to help break the international stalemate on the conflict.
The
US and EU are currently providing non-lethal aid, such as
communications equipment, and are beginning to distribute food and
medical supplies to the Free Syrian Army.
There
has been no consensus over the issue of arming the Opposition as a
result of fears that the weapons could get into the hands of terrorists.
A
European Union arms embargo on Syria is set to expire at the end of May
and its renewal will require a wide consensus on the issue.
Hague
confirmed at a pre-meet briefing in the UK's Foreign and Commonwealth
Office (FCO) here yesterday that Britain and France would continue to
push for the lifting of the arms embargo.
Iran,
Syria's main ally, will also loom large at the G8 talks after nuclear
negotiations between Tehran and world powers ended in deadlock at the
weekend.
The
tensions over North Korea would also be a key topic, with Pyongyang's
April 10 deadline over the safety of foreign embassies now running out.
Hague
stressed that his "personal priority" for the meeting was a new
agreement and international protocol to prevent sexual violence in
conflicts.
"Many countries are suffering these horrific attacks, including Sri Lanka and India.
At a domestic level, all governments are expected to do their best to
combat such crimes. Our aim is to draw up an international protocol and
build an international coalition on the issue of sexual violence as a
weapon of war," he said.
Other
topics of discussions at the ministerial talks are expected to include
encouraging international financial institutions to re-engage with Somalia and Iran and the Middle East peace process.
Burma and the Deauville Partnership with Arab Countries in Transition have also been named as key issues to be addressed.
