In Turkey, nations meet to plan for new Syria

ISTANBUL (AP) — Dozens of countries on Sunday sought to set conditions for a new Syria, pushing for tighter sanctions and diplomatic pressure to further isolate President Bashar Assad, while urging the opposition to offer a democratic alternative to his regime.

Yet the show of solidarity at the "Friends of the Syrian People" conference in Turkey's largest city Istanbul was marred by the absence of China, Russia and Iran — key supporters of Assad who disagree with Western and Arab allies over how to stop the bloodshed. A peace plan by U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan has so far failed to take hold amid fresh reports of deadly violence.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was among those attending the one-day meeting, which followed an inaugural forum in Tunisia in February. Syrian opposition figures, including the Syrian National Council, also attended, attempting to convince international sponsors that they can overcome their differences and shape the future of a country whose autocratic regime has long denied the free exchange of ideas.

In Damascus Sunday, the official Al-Baath newspaper blasted the conference as part of a conspiracy to kill Syrians and weaken the country. A front-page editorial called it a "regional and international scramble to search for ways to kill more Syrians, sabotage their society and state and move toward the broad objective of weakening Syria."

The delivery of humanitarian aid to Syria's beleaguered civilians, a key provision of Annan's plan, was also discussed Sunday. But a solution did not appear imminent without the cooperation of the Syrian government, whose military assaults on towns and cities have forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes. Syrian rebels, including army defectors, are fighting regime forces, but have been unable to consolidate their hold on territory because they are heavily outgunned.

Tens of thousands of Syrian refugees have fled to neighboring Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan, and Turkey has floated the idea of establishing a buffer zone inside Syria if the flow of displaced people onto its territory becomes overwhelming. There are concerns that foreign intervention, even if it has a humanitarian goal, could widen the conflict by dragging in other countries and triggering a surge in sectarian tensions.

Some Gulf countries want to arm the Syrian rebels, though there is uncertainty about the composition of rebel groups and their lack of cohesion. The United States says allies are considering the provision of non-lethal aid to opposition forces, but says military force against the Syrian government is a last resort.

The group meeting in Istanbul aims to create a sanctions working group that will share information on who is shipping arms and money to Assad, thereby avoiding harsh sanctions aimed at forcing his regime to stop its crackdown. The United Nations estimates more than 9,000 people have been killed since the uprising to oust Assad began a year ago.

There is also a move to document the killing in Syria, collecting witness records that can be used to bring perpetrators of human rights abuses to account in a post-Assad era, whether inside Syria or through international courts.