Syrian opposition warrns Qatar to leave Damascus alone

A senior member of the National Coordination Body for Democratic Change in Syria reiterated on Wednesday that NCBDC and all other opposition forces in the country are opposed to the interference of Qatar which has announced its intention to arm dissidents in Syria. "The National Coordination Body for Democratic Change in Syria as the main colony of Syrian dissidents is against any foreign interference and action to arm the opposition in Syria," Munzer Khaddam told FNA. "We are opposed to arming dissidents by either Qatar or any other country," he said, adding that any party in or outside the country who wants to arm the opposition forces does not care for the Syrian nation's interests. Khaddam underlined that a real opposition embarks on merely peaceful means for materializing its demands and never resorts to armed conflicts. His remarks came after Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim Al Thani said that the Syrian dissidents should be armed against Bashar Assad's government. The Qatari PM's comments were uttered despite the Syrian opposition's resentment against foreign meddling in their country's internal affairs, specially after the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council (PGCC) called for an official recognition of the Syrian dissidents and opponents of Bashar Assad's government in the upcoming Arab League summit in Baghdad. "We believe that military solution and foreign military intervention will further complicate the situation and will push us into a new crisis," member of the National Coordinating Committee for Democratic Change and an opposition figure Hassan Abdul Azim said on Monday. "We in the committee have announced since the very first day that we do not want any foreign intervention," he stated, and added, "In our view, foreign military intervention will bring Syria into a quagmire." Syria has been experiencing unrest since mid-March with organized attacks by well-armed gangs against Syrian police forces and border guards being reported across the country. Hundreds of people, including members of the security forces, have been killed, when some protest rallies turned into armed clashes. The government blames outlaws, saboteurs, and armed terrorist groups for the deaths, stressing that the unrest is being orchestrated from abroad. In October, calm was eventually restored in the Arab state after President Bashar al-Assad started a reform initiative in the country, but analysts fear that the US and Israeli plots could spark some new unrests in certain parts of the country.