"Friends of Syria" to call for U.N. peacekeepers

A Palestinian student is covered by a Syrian flag during a demonstration against Syria's President Bashar Assad and his regime, at the Unknown Soldier Square in Gaza City, Feb. 21, 2012. Some 500 Palestinians gathered in a Hamas-authorized demonstration in solidarity with Syrian protesters. / AP Photo/Adel Hana

Last Updated 9:55 a.m. ET

TUNIS, Tunisia - The nations that make up the Friends of Syria group will call Friday for the United Nations to begin planning a Syria peacekeeping mission once the regime agrees to a cease-fire, a senior diplomat said Friday.

The United States, European and Arab nations were set Friday to demand that Syrian President Bashar Assad agree to an immediate cease-fire and allow humanitarian aid into areas hardest hit by his regime's brutal crackdown on opponents, or face as-yet unspecified punishments and an increasingly emboldened and powerful armed resistance.

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Assuming he agrees now, after ignoring numerous similar demands, the UN would then send in a peacekeeping force with the permission of the ruling authority in Syria, whether it is Assad or a successor. The Friends of Syria, meeting Friday in Tunisia, have no more leverage than in previous attempts, either as individual nations or through the United Nations, to make Assad leave. But the diplomat said the demand by the nearly 70 nations involved in the group will simply increase pressure on Assad to see that his demise is inevitable.

The language in the statement will allow UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon to begin recruiting nations to join the peacekeeping force, billed as a non-military operation, and start identifying its mandate.

The plan is also designed to signal Russia and China, the two nations that have consistently opposed any foreign intervention in Syria, that their continued support of Assad could leave them out of business and diplomatic opportunities in what the group hopes will be a new Syria.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague described the Syrian government as a "criminal regime" as he arrived at the conference and said he was meeting with the opposition umbrella group, the Syrian National Council, boosting their stature.

"We will also intensify our links with the opposition," he said. "We will treat them and recognize them as a legitimate representative of the Syrian people."

"I hope those countries will take note of this strength of international feeling and support that we are seeing here in Tunis," Hague said about Russia and China. "There are more than 60 countries coming together, because it means that they are increasingly isolated in their views."

Alexei Pushkov, a Russian lawmaker, said Friday after meeting Assad that the Syrian president sounded confident and demonstrated no sign he would he step aside. Pushkov warned that arming the Syrian opposition would fuel civil war.

For their part, the Syrian National Council has welcomed the conference as part of their call for a peaceful transition to a democratic regime.

"This conference will help the Syrian people, the revolutionaries, I think; they will give us the power as a national council, a political umbrella for the revolution inside Syria," said Haithem al-Maleh, executive director of the group.

As the conference began Friday, about 200 pro-Syrian demonstrators tried to storm the hotel. The protest forced Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to be diverted to her hotel, delaying her appearance.

The protesters, waving Syrian and Tunisian flags, tussled with police and carried signs criticizing Clinton and President Barack Obama. They were driven out of the parking lot by police after about 15 minutes.

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[smittyc]

Iran has already replaced its contracts for oil in Western Europe with contracts in China. The same is transpiring with its banking system. The same is occurring in Syria with Syrian oil and will occur with banking. The picture painted in the article is quite one sided as to what the real political landscape looks like. Overall, both Europe and the U.S. will suffer due to higher prices at the pump. The news media as usual leaves gaping holes in their articles to the public, not indicating the Iranian sanctions on oil were supposed to start in July and Iran has already stopped supplying some Western European nations with oil and has declared they will be shutting off any oil to the west in the near term.

[sguard]

We acted like scared little worms at Munich,Germany(before WW2) in the face of Hitler, and now were doing about the same thing in facing this brutial tyrant in Syria!SHAME ON US!!---we have no stomich for nothing;our talk of upholding Human Rights is empty talk!!!

[NeoCon_ChickenHawk]

Russia and China have taken the lead in this whole Syria situation! The blood of the Syrian population is on Russia and China's hands and they will at some point have to answer for it. Let them handle it for a change. When it's all over and done with, the whole world can look to Russia and China for an explaination for their horribly wrong stance. Sometimes you just have to let idiots trip and fall on their face for them to learn. In the end, it's not our problem!!!