Syrian opposition calls for end to violence

Syria’s internal opposition has called on both the government and armed rebels to stop violence immediately at a rare meeting in Damascus.

The September 23 meeting was organized by the National Coordination Body for Democratic Change in Syria, or NCB, an umbrella for 16 opposition groups with roots in the country.

“The conference calls the regime’s forces to stop the violence immediately and the armed opposition to commit to the same under an appropriate Arabic and international supervision. Three: the conference requests the UN-Arab Envoy, Lakhdar Brahimi to call for an international conference about Syria where all concerned parties can play a part. The mission of this conference is to find the best political ways to start a transitional phase that guarantees the move towards a democratic regime,” said Khalil al-Sayed, member of the National Development Party.

Iranian, Chinese and Russian diplomats also attended the conference.

The gathering came a day after 29 opposition parties announced they had postponed a meeting aimed at unifying the opposition because the NCB, Syria’s government-sanctioned opposition, refused to be a part of it.

Ausama Monajed, a Syrian National Council official in exile, said the NCB was letting itself be used for Syrian propaganda purposes.

The Russian ambassador in Damascus, Azmat Allah Kolmahmedov, however, praised the conference, calling it a “direct implementation of the process of reforms launched by the Syrian government.”

Meanwhile, a former senior Assad official claimed Iran is providing heavy support to the Syrian regime.

“Iranians are active in leading positions in the military,” former Syrian Prime Minister Riad Hijab, who defected to the opposition last month, told the German daily “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.”

Earlier this month, the top commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said the elite united was providing advisers but not weapons to the Syrian regime.