(London) Speaking after the announcement that the ‘London 11,’ the core group of the Friends of Syria, would meet in London next week, a Foreign Office spokesperson said:

The Foreign Secretary will host the Foreign Ministers of the ‘London 11’ in London on 15 May.

This meeting comes at a time of widespread indiscriminate regime violence against civilians, plans to hold elections which will be a grotesque parody of democracy, and the regime’s complete failure to provide humanitarian access. Now is the right time for those countries who support a democratic future for Syria, free from Assad, to come together to do discuss how we press forward with this aim.

Foreign Ministers will discuss how best to significantly step-up our support to the Syrian opposition, make urgent progress on improving the deteriorating humanitarian crisis and reinvigorate a political process that has stalled due to regime intransigence.