U.S: Syria feeling the pressure

Syrian officials are threatened by a growing organization of opposition groups outside of the country, the U.S. State Department said. The European Union, in a statement last week condemning the ongoing bloodshed in Syria, said it welcomed the recent creation of the opposition Syrian National Council "as a positive step forward." Opposition groups are slowly coordinating outside the country. Victoria Nuland, a spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department said Damascus, which condemned any support for the opposition, was feeling the diplomatic pressure. "The Syrian regime is itself feeling threatened by the increasing organization and coalescence of the Syrian opposition as represented by the formation of this new group," she said of the national council. Nuland said Washington was in contact with the group, which it viewed as a legitimate interlocutor in the Syrian matter. She added, however, that despite support for the Syrian opposition in general, any resolution to the crisis must come from inside the country. "This has to be a Syrian solution," she said. "This can't be an outside solution." She added that, since Friday, as least 63 people were killed at the hands of Syrian security forces.