Syria – Ministerial meeting of the eleven countries making up the Friends of Syria “Core Group” (Paris, January 12, 2014)
We, the Foreign Ministers of Egypt, France, Germany, Italy, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States, met today in Paris with a delegation of the Syrian National Coalition led by its president Ahmad al-Jarba, and adopted the following Core Group declaration:
France organized a ministerial meeting of the eleven countries making up the Friends of Syria “Core Group” on January 12. This meeting was chaired by Laurent Fabius, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and took place in the presence of a Syrian National Coalition delegation led by its recently re-elected president, Ahmad al-Jarba.
This meeting allowed us to reaffirm our full support for the Syrian National Coalition and, in the run-up to the Geneva II conference, to reiterate our shared vision of a political transition addressing the Syrian people’s legitimate aspirations. The creation of a transitional government body with full executive powers was the central objective of the Geneva II conference.
At a time when the regime’s headlong pursuit of repression against the people continues to aggravate the humanitarian situation, this ministerial meeting signaled our desire to provide increased help to the Syrian National Coalition and the Syrian people, particularly in the liberated areas.