Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

Syria's opposition has asked Turkey for more military support to the resistance fighting government forces, saying the most urgent need is for anti-aircraft missiles, Todays Zaman newspaper reported on Sunday, referring to the elected president of the new opposition coalition.

"The main obstacle for [opposition] fighters is aircraft. They attack people everywhere. If there is something that can help us stop them, it would be great and we ask specifically for that," said Sheikh Ahmad Moaz al-Khatib, who had talks with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu during a visit to Turkey.

Claiming that the military support that started at the beginning of the 20-month offensive is not enough at all, al-Khatib urged the international community to promptly provide military assistance to prevent a complete victory by President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

Al-Khatib also said the Syrian opposition is grateful to Turkey for the assistance it provides in all fields, including military assistance supporting the uprising against Assad's military crackdown that has killed over 38,000 people.

The opposition had been deeply divided for months despite the relentless bloodshed and repeated calls from Western and Arab supporters to create a cohesive and representative leadership that could present a single conduit for foreign aid.

Syrian anti-government groups struck a deal to form a new opposition leadership group after more than a week of meetings in the Qatari capital of Doha last month. The new umbrella group, called the Syrian National Coalition for Opposition and Revolutionary Forces, includes representatives from Syria's disparate factions fighting to topple Assad's rule. It was formally recognized by France, Britain, European Union and Turkey, and the members of the Gulf Cooperation Council.

Al-Khatib also noted that the timeline for the establishment of a transitional government has been put off at the request of the international community until after a Friends of Syria group meeting in Morocco on December 12.

The international community had initially welcomed plans for the establishment of a transitional government to replace the current government in Syria under the plan of the former Syria peace envoy Kofi Annan put forward in July.

On the other hand, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev criticized France's support for the Syrian opposition and accused European Union leaders of indecisiveness in dealing with the region's economic crisis, Reuters reported.

He called this stance "highly controversial" but conceding that it is "an internal matter."

"In accordance with the principles of international law, which have been approved by the UN, no country, no nation, no government should take action aimed at the violent change of a political regime in any other country," Medvedev said.

"The desire to change a political regime in another state through recognition of some political force as the sole sovereign representative seems to me not entirely civilized," he noted.

Medvedev echoed President Vladimir Putin's statements that Russia takes a neutral stance and is not seeking to prop up Assad, saying that "Russia supports neither Assad's regime nor the opposition."

France became the first European country to openly back on November 13 the new Syrian National Coalition, formed November 11, noting that it would also help arm the rebels.

Since then, the European Union, as well as Turkey and a number of Arab League states, also announced they would back the coalition as "the legitimate representative" of the Syrian people.

"But ... the question is how right it is to ... decide to support another political force if that political force is in direct confrontation with the officially recognized government of another country. And from the point of view of international law, it seems to me that is absolutely unacceptable."

While Medvedev condemned the violence pursued by both sides, he reiterated that the "Assad regime and [Assad's] personal fate" was to be decided by the Syrian people alone.

Russia and France have been sharply at odds over Syria during the internal conflict, which began in March 2011. France and other Western states have criticized Russia for vetoing three U.N. Security Council resolutions aimed to pressure Assad.

Besides, Medvedev said in an interview with France Presse Agency and the newspaper Le Figaro on the eve of his visit to Paris that Russia provides the Syrian government with arms for defense against external aggression under existing contracts, ITAR-TASS news agency reported on Monday.

"Speaking of military cooperation, it hasn't come out today and this military cooperation always had an absolutely legal, in fact, open character -- we have never delivered to the regime of the incumbent president anything that was not stacked in the international conventions. All that we provided to Syria is weapons for defense against external aggression. Secondly, we have contracts that we must fulfill," Medvedev clarified while answering the question why Russia, despite the neutrality, continues to supply weapons to Syria.

Medvedev emphasized that any deliveries stop if international sanctions begin. As an example, he mentioned Iran, to which according to the UN Security Council resolution the delivery of certain types of weapons was suspended.

"Yes, we fulfilled the decision of the Security Council of the United Nations, but at the same time ran into a legal dispute with Iran. But we knew this, and, of course, we made the choice in favor of the decisions of the international community. Therefore, we maintain a very limited amount of cooperation in this field with the Syrian government," the Russian PM said.

Syria has been wracked by violence, with at least 20,000 people, mostly civilians, killed since the uprising against President Assad began over 20 months ago. The violence has spawned more than 440,000 refugees, while more than 4 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance, according to UN estimates.