China boycotts 'friends of Syria' meeting

The government of China announced that it has no plan to take part in the so-called “Friends of Syria” conference which is scheduled to be held in the French capital, Paris, on Friday. China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Liu Weimin, said on Thursday that his country has been invited to the event, but "(China) at present does not consider attending the meeting.” "We believe that it's a key phase now for resolving the Syrian issues politically," he added. Russia, another veto-holding power at the UN Security Council, had already announced that it would not attend the conference, either. Moscow accuses the West of trying to distort a previous deal reached by world powers on Syria in the Geneva meeting