Syria Opposition Wants No-Fly Zone, Corridors

The opposition Syrian National Council urged the U.N. Security Council to impose a no-fly zone and humanitarian corridors to protect civilians caught in Syria's conflict, in a statement issued ahead of a U.N. council meeting on Thursday.

The SNC, accusing the government of "crimes" and "barbaric acts," said a no-fly zone and corridors were essential to protect almost 2.5 million civilians displaced by the conflict or who had fled across the borders with Syria's neighbors.

"The SNC considers that if the Security Council does not take serious measures to halt the regime's massacres and crimes, it will have abandoned its role as guarantor of world peace and protector of people against genocide," it said.

The Security Council meeting was called by France and aimed at "appealing to world conscience and for mobilization" in the face of the Syrian humanitarian drama, a diplomat said in New York.

Turkey has floated the idea of creating buffer zones within Syria to receive those displaced by the conflict so they do not flood across the borders into neighboring countries.

Syrian President Bashar Assad, however, has dismissed the idea.

"Talk of buffer zones firstly is not on the table and secondly it is an unrealistic idea by hostile countries and the enemies of Syria," the embattled leader said in a television interview on Wednesday.

Ahead of the Council meeting, British Foreign Secretary William Hague played down expectations. "We are excluding no options for the future," he said, adding however there were "considerable difficulties with such an idea."