‘Friends of Syria’ Meet in Tokyo

(Tokyo) – Delegates from more than 60 countries have gathered in Tokyo, seeking to ramp up pressure on Bashar al-Assad’s regime as the US moved towards recognizing the newly-unified opposition as true leaders of Syria. Japanese Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba, addressing the meeting of “Friends of Syria” group said, “The violence has continued for more than 20 months and the number of casualties in Syria has surpassed 40,000 and counting today, causing a humanitarian crisis. We are gravely concerned about the spillover of the crisis to the entire region. While the United Nations Security Council has been unable to assume its primary responsibility, it’s increasingly important for the international community to act as one in order to deal with” the continuing violence”.
The Friends of Syria group has previously organised four such meetings this year in Paris in April, Washington in June, Doha in July and The Hague in September.