Damascus on Sunday blasted a “Friends of Syria” meeting in Istanbul that is seeking ways to up the pressure on President Bashar al-Assad’s regime as a “platform for the enemies of Syria.”
“Only the naive and those who want to see through the eyes of the Americans believe that this is a conference for the friends of the Syrian people,” said Al-Baath newspaper, mouthpiece of Assad’s ruling party of the same name.
“The call by (Prince) Saud al-Faisal to arm the terrorists, encourage the bloodbath and destroy infrastructure makes the conference a platform for the enemies of Syria, who are discussing everything but the interests of the Syrians,” it added.
The Saudi foreign minister said on Saturday that “arming the opposition is a duty” because it is unable to defend itself, despite the opposition of Washington and other Western and Arab states to the idea.
But the Damascus daily accused those attending the Istanbul gathering of seeking to weaken Syria.
“This is a regional and international offensive to find ways of killing still more Syrians, and ruining their society and their state, to weaken Syria and transform it into a country resembling those that pander to Washington, Paris, London and Tel Aviv.”
Separately, state television broadcast images of the opening of the conference and condemned those participating.
“(Recep Tayyip) Erdogan speaks of the interests of the Syrian people and forgets that he hosts the terrorists and facilitates their criminal operations in Syria,” it charged. The TV channel also lashed out at Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani, who also spoke at the start of the meeting.