DAMASCUS, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- Foreign-based Syrian opposition National Coalition said Friday that it would not attend next month's Friends of Syria meeting in Rome.
The group, formed in Doha in November, said the planned boycott was in protest against a lack of international condemnation of the "crimes committed against the Syrian people."
The international community "amounts to participating in two years of killings" by keeping silent on "the crimes committed every day against our people," it said in a statement.
Due to the "this shameful international position," the coalition has also decided to quit the scheduled talks in Russia and the United States, added the statement.
UN human rights chief Navi Pillay has placed the death toll from Syria's 23-month-old turmoil at nearly 70,000.
MOSCOW, Feb. 22 (Xinhua) -- China calls for an immediate start of intra-Syrian talks in accordance with the Geneva agreements reached by world powers, visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said here on Friday.
China urges all relevant parties to stop violence and launch the dialogue as soon as possible, adopt a flexible and pragmatic attitude on issues such as working out a roadmap for the political transition in Syria and establishing a transitional governing body, Yang told reporters here following a meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov. Full story
MOSCOW, Feb. 22 (Xinhua) -- Russia on Friday accused the United States of double standards on Syria in blocking a U.N. Security Council condemnation of a bomb attack in the Syrian capital that killed at least 53 people.
The car bomb on Thursday on a busy highway in Damascus also damaged nearby Russian embassy buildings. Full story
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