“Clinton will also attend a high-profile meeting with GCC foreign ministers,” said Abdullateef Al-Zayani, GCC’s secretary general, here yesterday. Al-Zayani pointed out that Clinton will attend this first ministerial meeting of the GCC-US Strategic Cooperation Forum, which will discuss the whole range of bilateral and regional issues including security cooperation, as well as the international community’s continuing efforts to stop the bloodshed in Syria.

The GCC chief said in a statement that the GCC-US Strategic Cooperation Forum will help to boost bilateral relations between the GCC and the US. He said “the forum plans to explore ways and means to boost GCC-US cooperation further in the field of politics, business, trade, and culture.”

The meeting also seeks to boost joint efforts to face new challenges, developments in the region as well as international issues of mutual concern.

Clinton’s talks in Riyadh are set for Friday and Saturday, just before she attends the second “Friends of Syria” meeting Sunday in Istanbul that will draw not just Arab delegates but also those from Turkey and Western powers, said a statement released by the US Department of State, while expressing concerns on Syria. The disparate Syrian opposition is also expected to attend the Istanbul meet, just as they did when the first such conference was held in Tunis last month.

Saudi Arabia and its neighbor Qatar have called for arming the Syrian opposition. Washington and many of its allies say Syrian President Bashar Assad has lost all legitimacy in a year of cracking down on political opponents. They say Assad must step down. In fact, the second meeting of the “Friends of the Syrian People” is a significant step at this crucial time, because Clinton will also meet one-on-one with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and other foreign leaders there in Turkey.

It is important to note here that US President Barack Obama and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed during talks in Seoul on Sunday that  the Istanbul talks should work on furnishing communications equipment and medical supplies to the rebels. The Riyadh and the Istanbul meetings will build upon steps that US allies and the Syrian Opposition continue to take in an attempt to halt the slaughter of the Syrian people and pursue a transition to democracy in that Arab country.

Clinton’s trip to Riyadh and Istanbul will pave ways for further exerting pressure on ruthless Syrian regime. On international level, the pressure is mounting on Syria, said a GCC spokesman Ahmed Al-Kaabi. He pointed out that Kofi Annan, the UN and Arab League envoy, is preparing to visit Beijing after talks in Moscow. China and Russia blocked past US-backed efforts in the UN Security Council to put the burden on Assad to end the bloodshed.