The United States appeared to open the door to eventually arming the Syrian opposition, saying if a political solution to the crisis were impossible it might have to consider other options. The comments. which were by officials at both the White House and the State Department on Tuesday, came as Arab and Western powers will gather with the Syrian opposition in Tunisia on Friday for a meeting aimed at boosting international efforts to end the increasingly bloody crisis in Syria. The “Friends of Syria” conference will gather top diplomats from the Arab League, Europe and the United States, but will be marked by the absence of Russia, which denounced the meeting as one-sided and refused to attend. China, which has joined Russia in vetoing UN Security Council resolutions on Syria, has also refused to commit itself to attend. Russia's Foreign Ministry voiced support Wednesday for a humanitarian ceasefire in Syria. The ministry's spokesman, Alexander Lukashevich, said Wednesday that Russia is supporting the International Committee of the Red Cross's call for a daily two-hour cease-fire to provide aid to the population of Syria. Meanwhile, American correspondent Marie Colvin and French photographer Remi Ochlik were killed in the besieged Syrian city of Homs on Wednesday when rockets fired by government forces hit the house they were staying in, opposition activists and witnesses said. At least two other journalists and possibly more were wounded in the attack, the Syrian Network for Human Rights said. One of the wounded was named as British photographer Paul Conroy, the other as Edith Bouvier of France's Le Figaro newspaper. She was said to be in serious condition. A witness contacted by Reuters from Amman said shells hit the house in the opposition-held Baba Amro district of Homs which was being used as a media centre. A rocket hit them when they tried to escape. French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Wednesday that the killing of two Western journalists in Syria showed that it was time for President Bashar al-Assad's regime to go.“This shows that enough is enough, this regime must go. There is no reason why Syrians should not have the right to live their lives, to freely choose their destiny,” Sarkozy said. Representatives from the Syrian National Council (SNC) and other opposition groups will be at the meeting and are expected to come under pressure to work for the creation of a united group to represent opponents of the regime. The comments about arming Syrian rebels marked a shift in emphasis by Washington, which so far has stressed its policy of not arming the opposition and has said little about alternatives. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will meet with representatives of some 70 countries in Tunis on Friday for the first “Friends of Syria” meeting to coordinate the international community's next steps to respond to the nearly year-long uprising against Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad. The International Committee of the Red Cross said Wednesday that it was holding a meeting with Syria's main opposition group in Geneva, a day after the humanitarian agency called for temporary pauses in the fighting so that it can bring in emergency aid and evacuate the wounded and sick from affected areas.
