Friends of Syria meet fails to take concrete action

The Bab Amr suburb of Homs has been under continuous heavy attack The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has begun a second day of evacuating Syrians in the besieged city of Homs as world leaders urged an end to the violence. Homs has been under constant bombardment by government forces for three weeks and hundreds of civilians, including children, are reported to have been killed.
The ICRC said they hope to evacuate more people in Homs after Syrian authorities allowed them into the city on Saturday morning.
On Friday, aid workers were allowed to enter the Babr Amr district for the first time to help those in need of medical assistance.
They managed to safely move seven women and children to a hospital in another part of the city, ICRC spokesperson Carla Haddad said.A further 20 uninjured women and children were later evacuated and taken to "a safe area", Haddad said.
Foreign journalists trapped in the area were not among them.
Meanwhile, Western and Arab powers meeting in Tunis on Friday mounted the biggest diplomatic offensive in weeks against President Bashar Al-Assad's 11-month-old crackdown on the opposition, but failed to agree on any concrete action against the regime.
The Friends of Syria convention saw up to 70 international delegates trying to find a way to end the bloodshed in Syria.
The world leaders called on Assad to stop the killing of civilians and allow emergency aid into the country.
But the international efforts to resolve the crisis were criticised by Qatar and Saudi Arabia, who want Arab peacekeepers to enter Syria in order to enforce a ceasefire.
Western powers, including the UK and the US, are wary of military intervention and prefer a more diplomatic approach including more economic sanctions.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the meantime called Russia and China as "despicable" for opposing UN action on Syria.
The two nations were not in attendance at the Friends of Syria meeting in Tunisia, and earlier this month both voted against a UN resolution condemning the violence.
Speaking after the conference, Clinton said: "It's quite distressing to see two permanent members of the Security Council using their veto while people are being murdered - women, children, brave young men - houses are being destroyed.
"It is just despicable and I ask whose side are they on? They are clearly not on the side of the Syrian people."
While Moscow has backed calls for a ceasefire, it has criticised other Western countries for being "one-sided" in its approach.
Qatar and Saudi Arabia used the Tunis conference to call for an Arab force to impose peace.
Later in the day, the Saudi delegation quit the talks over what they called a lack of action, while the Saudi foreign minister even suggested that arming Syria's opposition fighters was an "excellent idea".
UK Foreign Secretary William Hague said it was important for Russia and China to no longer oppose the international community - and even suggested Beijing was reviewing its stance.
"I haven't seen that shift in Russia yet," he said. "I think the Chinese government is constantly assessing the position.
"So I hope... immediately they will change their position, but if not that, then they will steadily do so over time."
Hague also said Britain would recognise the Syrian opposition as a "legitimate representative" of the people, and called the government "a criminal regime".
Activists claim more than 7,000 people have now died in the uprisings against Assad. The UN has said it is impossible to update its earlier estimate of 5,400 deaths due to the difficult situation on the ground.
The draft conclusion of the meeting demanded that the Syrian authorities facilitate the delivery of emergency aid to areas under siege - including Homs, Deraa and Zabadani.
But the Syrian regime has refused to comply with such calls so far.
Hosting the summit, Tunisian president Moncef Marzouki told Sky News the world can no longer stand by and "watch the massacre" in Syria.
But the Tunisian leader ruled out a military solution, warning that foreign military intervention or arming the opposition could only lead to an escalation of violence.