Qatar hands $100m to Syrian rebels

Qatar has handed financial support worth US$100m to the Syrian opposition, the state-run Qatar News Agency said.

The financial aid, which comes under the directive of Deputy Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, has been handed over to the Humanitarian Assistance Coordination Unit in Syria.

This contribution comes in the context of humanitarian aid provided by Qatar to the Syrian people aiming to provide emergency assistance through all humanitarian networks operating in favour of the Syrian people, QNA reported.

According to local media, Nazar Al Haraki, the new Syrian ambassador to Qatar representing the National Coalition, appreciated Qatar’s gesture.

During 2012 Qatar called on the international community to increase its support to the Syrian opposition. The British Foreign Secretary William Hague, who was in Doha on Wednesday, said that Britain would be amending an arms embargo as agreed by the European Union on Monday which will allow it to send military equipment to rebels in Syria. At the moment the UK has no plans to send weapons to Syria.

“We would amend the embargo and this will expand the kind of practical support we can give for saving lives of the people of Syria, in particular to the National Coalition. I will announce once we have agreed the exact terms of the amendments and once we have made the necessary decisions,” Hague told Doha-based network Al Jazeera.

Qatar earlier this month handed over the Syrian embassy building in Doha to the Syrian National Coalition. “I hope the day will come when they are able to take over all the premises of the Syrian government in the world,” Hague said of the move.

Opposition forces in Syria have been fighting the regime of Bashar Al-Assad for two years in a conflict that has killed around 70,000 people on both sides, according to the United Nations.