DOHA/damascus: The Syrian National Council, vying to keep its leading role and under US pressure to unify, yesterday called for a delay to a decision on bringing together all groups opposed to President Bashar Al Assad.
Meeting in Doha, the SNC sought to have the decision made today after it chooses a new chief, having already elected a 41-member secretariat, a third of them Islamists, and as it faces charges of not being representative enough.“We requested a postponement of 24 hours - we are in the electoral process,” Ahmad Ramadan, a member the new team, said.A major activist network quit the bloc and other groups went ahead with a unity meeting.
The Local Coordination Committees, a major network of on-the-ground activists, said it had withdrawn from the SNC over its failure to adopt “serious and effective” reforms to make it more representative. The umbrella group yesterday elected 11 members to sit on its executive committee, including Christian dissident George Sabra. Four members are new and three others are Islamists.
“We hope that these free and transparent elections will be a model for free elections in Syria,” Sabra said, stressing that the new executive represents all sectors of society, including for the first time the tribes. Representatives of various opposition groups were said to be close to reaching an agreement over a united structure when they gathered on Thursday in the Qatari capital.
But SNC representatives voiced reservations about the initiative, based on a proposal tabled by prominent dissident Riad Seif with apparent US support.
The plan put forward at Thursday’s meeting, called by host Qatar and the Arab League, appeared to be a modified version of Seif’s initiative, proposing an umbrella body of some 60 members, representing the SNC, civilian groups active on the ground, armed groups, Muslim scholars and others.
This body would in turn form a transitional government of some 10 members, and a military council. The SNC, formed six months after the anti-regime uprising began in March 2011, has proposed “holding a national congress of 300 members in liberated territories” in order to add “revolutionary legitimacy” to any executive, according to SNC member Najati Tayara.
Such a congress would form a transitional government that would run territories seized by the rebels, channel humanitarian aid and direct military operations, he said. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last week called the SNC unrepresentative of opposition forces on the ground and said it “can no longer be viewed as the visible leader of the opposition.”
The SNC, which fears marginalisation in a new structure, in return accused Washington of undermining the revolt and “sowing the seeds of division.”
Participants in the broad opposition meeting had voiced optimism about reaching common ground. “We are moving towards agreement,” said Burhan Ghalioun, a former SNC chief.
Any accord “could boost the uprising” as it would enable the opposition to unite the different military groups battling regime forces, he added. Ahmed Ben Helli, deputy head of the Arab League, said delegates had been urged to overcome the divisions that have dogged their efforts to unseat Assad.
“The opposition is urged to agree on a leading body which would have credibility among the Syrian people and the international community,” he said.
Rebels capture town
Meanwhile, Free Syrian Army fighters captured a town on the Turkish border on Thursday in a push to seize control of frontier areas from President Bashar Al Assad’s forces, a rebel commander and opposition sources said.
Ten people were killed in clashes as rebels took Ras Al Ain, an Arab and Kurd town in the northeastern oil-producing province of Hasaka, 600km from Damascus, the sources said.
“The crossing is important because it opens another line to Turkey, where we can send the wounded and get supplies,” said Khaled Al Walid, a commander in the Raqqa Rebel Division, based in a neighbouring province.
In the last three months, the mainly Arab Sunni rebels have captured several outposts on the 800-km (500-mile) border, steadily moving toward the northeast, home to a large proportion of Syria’s one-million-strong Kurdish minority.
The Kurdish Council, a coalition of Kurdish parties opposed to Assad, called on the Free Syrian Army to leave Ras al-Ain, saying the clashes, as well as fear of Syrian army bombardment, had prompted most of the town’s 50,000 inhabitants to flee.
“While the Kurdish Council affirms it is part of the revolution to bring down this totalitarian regime, the province of Hasaka must remain a safe area for thousands of refugees who had fled to it from other regions,” the statement said.
“Military elements have to pull out so their presence would not serve as an excuse to shell the town and destroy it. We affirm the need to coordinate between the opposition groups about safe areas and the need to preserve civic peace in them.”
AFP/Reuters
