LONDON – US Secretary of State John Kerry urged members of the Syrian opposition to turn up for talks in Rome this week, insisting that more help is on the way in their fight against President Bashar Al-Assad. Kerry was in London for the first leg of his debut overseas trip — a hectic nine-country dash through Europe and the Middle East. The trip includes a Syrian opposition conference in Rome, which some members of the sharply divided Syrian opposition council have threatened to boycott. A senior Obama administration official said Sunday that Kerry has sent his top Syrian envoy to Cairo in hopes of convincing opposition leaders that their participation in the conference in Rome is critical to addressing questions from potential donors and securing additional aid from the United States and Europe. “We are not coming to Rome simply to talk,” Kerry said at a joint news conference with Britain's Foreign Secretary William Hague. “We are coming to Rome to talk about next steps.” Kerry said the Syrian people “deserve better” than the violence currently gripping their country as he stood alongside Britain's Foreign Secretary William Hague. Meanwhile, rebel chief Selim Idriss said Monday that Assad must fall, all the killing must end and the Syrian army must withdraw from all cities before any dialogue can begin with the regime. The Free Syrian Army's chief of staff Idriss spoke to pan-Arab broadcaster Al-Arabiya after a groundbreaking statement in Moscow by Foreign Minister Walid Al-Muallem that Assad's regime is “ready for dialogue with all who want dialogue, including those who are carrying arms.” “Muallem wants us to sit with him at the negotiating table... I am not going to sit with him or with any other member of his clique before all the killing stops, or before the army withdraws from the cities,” said Idriss. The rebel chief also called for “the departure from power of the head of this criminal gang (Assad)”. “Security and army heads who gave orders to kill must be tried,” he added. “We, the rebel fighters, will not go (to the negotiating table) until these demands are respected... We insist on these conditions,” said the general. “We have not received an official proposal for talks with guarantees. We do not trust the regime. – Agencies
