'Qatar, KSA seek bloodshed in Syria by arming rebels'

Syrian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Jihad Maqdisi

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/229310.html

Syria condemns Qatari and Saudi Arabian calls for arming terrorist groups fighting against the government of President Bashar al-Assad as a hostile bid aimed at fueling unrest in the country.

Syrian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Jihad Maqdisi said on Wednesday that by arming anti-government terrorists in Syria the Kingdom and Qatar are only worsening the situation in Syria and therefore more people will be killed.

He also held those countries funding and arming terrorist groups in Syria responsible for the months of deadly violence in the country.

"The Syrian response to such calls was reserved. We would like the brothers in Qatar and Saudi Arabia or whomsoever to contribute to getting the opposition figures to act rationally and come to the dialogue table, and not to arming the opposition and shedding the Syrian blood, for which they are fully responsible as they are consciously shedding it," Maqdisi told a news conference in the capital, Damascus.

Saudi Arabia and Qatar have recently said that they support the idea of sending weapons to anti-government groups, who have been fighting against the Syrian government since last year.

Arab League Secretary General Nabil al-Araby has said that arming Syrian rebels might be a possible alternative if the international community fails to end the violence in the country.

Maqdisi also said that Damascus is committed to helping evacuate the Western journalists trapped in the restive city of Homs, blaming rebel refusal to cooperate with the Red Crescent for the delay in their transfer.

"We entrusted the Red Crescent, in cooperation with the International Committee of the Red Cross, to negotiate (the evacuation) but the gunmen refused to hand over the bodies and the journalists," the Foreign Ministry Spokesman said