Premier condemns Qatar as forerunner of meddling in Syrian affairs

Syrian Prime Minister Wael Nader al-Halqi rapped the West and certain regional states for interfering and fueling the crisis in Syria, and said Qatar plays a leading role in meddling and supporting the terrorists in the war on his country. "As they themselves have claimed, Qatar pioneered in measures to oust the authoritarian rulers in the Arab states and they thought that the fate of developments in Syria will be like Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, and that Damascus could not survive such developments," Halqi told FNA on Wednesday. "But Qatar, which didn’t spare any efforts to assist, equip and support the opposition and the armed forces financially and logistically, soon came to face the reality of affairs in Syria and didn’t gain any success after tens of months of such fake developments," he added. Qatar, along with Saudi Arabia and Turkey, have been widely viewed as the West's main Middle East allies in fomenting violence in Syria and financing the terrorists fighting against the President Bashar al-Assad's government. Syria has been experiencing unrest since March 2011 with organized attacks by well-armed gangs against the Syrian police, border guards, statesmen, army and the civilians being reported across the country. Thousands of people have been killed since terrorist and armed groups turned protest rallies into armed clashes. The government blames outlaws, saboteurs, and armed terrorist groups for the deaths, stressing that the unrest is being orchestrated from abroad. In October 2011, calm was almost restored in most parts of the Arab state after President Assad started a reform initiative in the country, but Israel, the US and its Arab allies brought the country into chaos through every possible means. Tel Aviv, Washington and some Arab capitals have been staging various plots in the hope of increasing unrests in Syria.