US to Create Coalition Supporting Syrian Opposition

Washington intends to create a coalition to support the Syrian opposition, U.S. State Department Spokesperson Victoria Nuland said at a briefing February 7, Interfax reports.

“The idea here is to gather countries who are interested in supporting a democratic Syria, many of whom made their views known in the UN, but there’s also a broader group of them in the Arab League and in Europe to work together to do what we can. And we are consulting now on how this might work,” Nuland said.

She also noted that statements by Arab and European countries prove that “we are talking in the same vein about forming a group of friends who can do more together in the absence of being able to do more in the UN.”

February 5, Russia and China used their veto power to block a resolution proposed by the UN Security Council on resolving the conflict in Syria, which has been engulfed in armed clashes between the state army and the opposition since last March.

Russia continues to support the regime of President Bashar al-Assad while Western countries and the Arab states of the Persian Gulf support the Syrian opposition. The Kremlin considers the current Syrian government an ally in the region, and has tried to resist the change of government in the country.

Syria’s port of Tartus hosts the only Russian military base outside the borders of the former Soviet Union. It has the capacity to provide material and technical support for the Russian Navy if it is deployed in the Mediterranean Sea.