Hague affirms UK's stance towards Syria

The UK Foreign Secretary and First Secretary of State William Hague has affirmed his country's unchanged stance towards Syria on Saturday. "The UK's stance towards Syria has not changed, as any change to be taken, as announced by the Prime Minister, must be initially debated in the parliament," said Hague in a statement before the ministerial meeting of "Friends of Syria" in Doha on Saturday. Britain has three consistent elements towards the Syrian crisis and they are providing more humanitarian aid, pushing towards finding a political solution to the conflict, and "as we have come a long way on this path, hoping to witness a successful conference in Geneva between Al-Assad regime and the opposition party," he noted. He added "there will not be a solution as long as the Al-Assad regime thinks that it can eliminate the legitimate opposition." This meeting in Doha is a great opportunity to tackle the current situation in Syria in light of the "horrible" events that took place in the previous weeks, and after the G8 meeting in Northern Ireland, said Hague, adding "we aim here to discuss the ideas and action plans that we can take." On Geneva II conference, he said there is not a fixed date for it, and that there are several steps to be taken during the meeting in Doha such as providing more assistance to the Syrian people, which will pave the way for the Geneva conference. The G8 countries' leaders confirmed holding the Geneva conference, as "the work is underway on the success of it to ensure the participation of both the Syrian government and the opposition party to agree on forming a transitional government with full executive powers," Hague concluded.