HE the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabor al-Thani yesterday said that Qatar was one of the first countries to engage with the Syrian leadership to reach a settlement, whether through unilateral action or the Arab League, but in both cases the regime would offer “positive talks” while “brutal killings and suppression” continued.

“Both the Arab mission and, then, the UN mission were met with stalling from the Syrian government, hoping to quell the Syrian revolution,” the Prime Minister said as he addressed the Paris-based Friends of Syria meeting. He called the recent Geneva conference on Syria a “good step”, wishing China and Russia would be serious in dealing with the situation.

Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim reiterated Qatar’s willingness to help relieve the suffering of the Syrian people, stressing the necessity that the international community reached a resolution away from the Security Council.

“We need to pause and correct the path as soon as possible in order to reduce the number of the dead….”

The Qatari premier added that change was coming but it should be done with minimal losses. “We want a safe exit for the Syrian leadership and to leave the Syrian people without burning their land.”

Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim later took part in a GCC foreign ministers’ meeting with the Syrian opposition on the sidelines of the Friends of Syria conference.

The meeting discussed issues on the conference’s agenda in addition to ways of settling the Syrian crisis.