abercrombie and fitch sale DiggRedditTumblrPermalink.Energized by an overwhelming vote of support at the United Nations General Assembly, backers of an Arab League peace plan for Syria said Friday that they were seeking new ways to aid opponents of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and to ensure that an international conference in Tunisia next week puts additional pressure on him to relinquish power. Related General Assembly Votes to Condemn Syrian Leader (February 17, 2012) Connect With Us on Twitter Follow @nytimesworld for international breaking news and headlines.Twitter List: Reporters and Editors
abercrombie and fitch uk The diplomatic momentum, seen in high-level meetings in Washington and Paris, came as thousands of anti-Assad Syrians, perhaps also emboldened by news of the General Assembly vote on Thursday, were reported to have demonstrated in the cities of Daraa, Aleppo, Idlib, Hama and the suburbs of Damascus following Friday prayers.The Local Coordination Committees, an activist group in Syria, reported that pro-Assad forces in those cities as well as the embattled central city of Homs fired on some demonstrators and killed at least 56 people around the country, including 12 military deserters. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, another activist group, said 26 people were killed.
abercrombie sale The information from the groups could not be corroborated because of the government’s restriction on outside information-gathering in the increasingly violent conflict, which has taken on the trappings of a civil war with a fractious and disorganized opposition. Mr. Assad, who has belittled his opponents as foreign-backed armed terrorist gangs, sharply escalated the repression on Feb. 4 when Russia and China vetoed a Security Council resolution condemning his crackdown and calling on him to step aside under an Arab League plan aimed at ending the conflict. The plan calls for new elections and a new government.
abercrombie and fitch sale uk Exasperated by the veto, Arab League diplomats, with wide array of support in the West and elsewhere, then moved to put the same plan to a vote on Thursday, over Syria’s objections, in a resolution at the General Assembly, where it won by 137-12 and amounted to the strongest global rebuke Mr. Assad has faced so far.Although the General Assembly resolution has no enforcement power, it gave some vitality to hopes for results at a Tunis conference organized by the Arab League scheduled for Feb. 24, known as the “Group of Friends of Syria,” which will be attended by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, her counterparts in the European Union and others.
abercrombie and fitch uk sale “Yesterday’s U.N. General Assembly vote demonstrated an overwhelming international consensus that the bloody assaults must end,” Mrs. Clinton told reporters on Friday after a meeting in Washington with Catherine Ashton, the top foreign policy official in the European Union. Mrs. Clinton said participants at the Tunis conference “will work to intensify pressure on the regime and to mobilize the humanitarian relief that is needed.”Earlier in Paris, Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain and President Nicholas Sarkozy issued a statement commending the Arab League plan and the Tunis conference, where, they said, they would be working on ways to “help facilitate delivery of humanitarian assistance.”
abercrombie uk France has already proposed setting up what it has called humanitarian corridors to funnel relief to civilians in Syrian areas that have suffered prolonged deprivations because of Mr. Assad’s crackdown. It is unclear how such corridors would function without Mr. Assad’s assent. Tunisia, where the Arab Spring uprisings began more than a year ago, delivered an important slap to Mr. Assad earlier this month by agreeing to be the host of the conference and by severing diplomatic relations with Syria.
abercrombie sale uk The Tunisians have also suggested they might recognize the Syrian National Council, an expatriate group of Syrian opposition figures, as Syria’s official government, although support for that idea is not widely shared among other Arab League members because the council controls no territory inside Syria. It was unclear on Friday whether representatives of the council would have official representation at the Tunis meeting. Tunisia’s foreign minister, Rafik Abdesslem, was quoted by Reuters as saying “there is another view that says we open the channels of dialogue with all the Syrian opposition sides.”