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The UK had changed the status of the London office of the Syrian opposition into a mission on Thursday. The National Coalition, led by Ahmed Jarba, was given a similar vote of confidence when the United Stated states gave it similar recognition 10 days ago.
After a Friends of Syria group meeting in London, Foreign Secretary William Hague said that Britain would help with an additional $50 million in “practical support to help the opposition” against Syrian President Bashar Assad. “We have also decided to upgrade the status of the National Coalition’s representative office here in London to a mission in recognition of the strength of our partnership”, he said.
The last Syrian government diplomat in London was a charge d’affaires who in July 2012 resigned protesting against Assad’s crackdown on protesters. Syria had previous withdrawn its UK ambassador.
US Secretary of State John Kerry, who was in London for the Friends of Syria group meeting, said, “Together we are agreed in saying that Assad’s staged elections are a farce, they are an insult and they are a fraud”. Kerry added that he had seen the “raw data” which suggested the use of chlorine in the Syrian conflict, thereby suggesting that accusations made by France against the Syrian regime might be true.
“I have seen evidence … it’s not verified yet… hasn’t been confirmed. But I’ve seen the raw data that suggests that there may have been, as France has suggested, a number of instances in which chlorine has been used in the conduct of war. If it has, and if it could be proven, then that would be against the agreements of the chemical weapons treaty, against the weapons convention that Syria has signed up to”, he said.
On Tuesday, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said had said that Syria used chemicals weapons in 14 attacks since last October. Last year, Syria signed the Chemical Weapons Convention as a part of an agreement to surrender its chemical weapons after it was accused of sarin attacks in Damascus. The convection does not say that Syria has to give up its chlorine gas supply, but it does prevent its use as a weapon.
