Friends of Syria Group

The collective was created in response to a Russian and Chinese veto on a Security Council resolution condemning Syria.

[2] The group was initiated by then-French president Nicolas Sarkozy, with the purpose to find a solution to the Syrian conflict, after Russia and China had vetoed a 4 February 2012 UN Security Council resolution.

Then U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and U.S. officials Anne-Marie Slaughter and Michael Hirsh advocated that Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Jordan would be able to create "no-kill zones", and argued that Syria was more central to American interests than Libya had been.

Speakers addressing the meeting included William Hague, Laurent Fabius, Ahmet Davutoğlu and Hillary Clinton.

[11] On 22 June 2013, a conference in Doha was opened to discuss how to organise the delivery of military and other kinds of aid for Syrian rebels.