The original content of Democracy Now! Headlines appears under the Creative
Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 License (United States). For more, including their other
shows and media, visit www.democracynow.org.
June 24, 2013

Friends of Syria Group Pledges Military Aid to Rebels 
------------------------------------------------------


 
Arab and Western countries opposed to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad
have agreed to provide military aid to rebels fighting his regime during
a meeting in Doha, Qatar. In a statement, 11 countries in the Friends of
Syria group pledged to "provide urgently all the necessary materiel and
equipment to the opposition on the ground." They also condemned the
intervention on Assad's side of fighters from the militant group
Hezbollah. Secretary of State John Kerry discussed the move at a news
conference.

John Kerry: "What is clear is that every country committed today to step
up what it is doing in direct response to what has happened on the
ground and also what is different is that this is now in response to
what Iran and Hezbollah are doing."

Fierce fighting raged over the weekend in the northern Syrian city of
Aleppo and capital, Damascus.

 

.