A declaration issued by the newly formed Union of Syrians Abroad after nearly a day of deliberations at a downtown Vienna hotel said the point of the meeting was “to take an unmistakable position against the brutal Assad regime.”
It said the union wants to “support the revolution by the overthrow of the Syrian regime and the creation of a democratic, multiparty state.”
Union spokesman Amer Alkhatib said the groups gathered in Vienna represent 10,000 to 15,000 Syrian emigres, living in 15 European countries.
“The basic principles of the Syrian revolution ... still do not foresee a military intervention from abroad and that is our position,” he said. At the same time, he said, his group demands “the support and protection of Syrian demonstrators by the UN whether through a no-fly zone or other means that might be needed in the future.”
Asked if that could include a future call for the kind of NATO air campaign that helped Libyan revolutionaries shake the regime of Muammar Qaddafi, he said such intervention “might become necessary and also a demand of the Syrian people.”
The UN estimates that the crackdown by President Bashar Assad on pro-democracy demonstrators has killed about 2,200 people since March. On Friday, thousands of Syrian protesters appealed Friday for international help — largely observation missions and human rights monitors — in a fundamental shift to earlier opposition to aid from outside in helping topple Assad.
Alkhatib said the umbrella organization formed in Vienna planned to support the Syrian revolution through the media, as well as offering “financial and at some point also logistical support,” first in Europe and then worldwide. He said his group had good contacts with revolutionaries in Syria and leaders or other major opposition groups abroad.
