Syria opposition forms united front against Assad
TURKEY: Syrian opposition movements announced the formation of
a “historic” united front against President Bashar al-Assad’s regime at
a meeting in Turkey on Sunday. At home, meanwhile, a son of Syria’s
grand mufti was killed when his car came under attack from gunmen,
Syria’s state news agency SANA said.
And rights activists said that Syrian troops have taken control of
the central city of Rastan after sending in 250 tanks to quell clashes
between the army and deserters.
“The Syrian National Council reunites the forces of the opposition
and the peaceful revolution,” Paris-based academic Burhan Ghalioun told
reporters in Istanbul, announcing the new umbrella movement which he
called “historic.”
Uniting groups across the political spectrum, “it represents the
Syrian revolution both inside and outside the country,” he said.
“It works to mobilise all categories of people in Syria and give the
necessary support for the revolution to progress and realise the
aspirations of our people for the overthrow of the regime, its symbols
and its head,” he said.
Ghalioun said the SNC was “open to all Syrians.”
The SNC called on “international organisations to assume their
responsibility toward the Syrian people and to work to protect them from
the war declared against them, to halt ... the dangerous human rights
violations.” But “the council rejects any outside interference that
undermines the sovereignty of the Syrian people,” he added.
Ghalioun is to chair the SNC, whose board will include Bassma Kodmani
as spokeswoman, Mohammed Riyad al-Shaqfa of the Muslim Brotherhood and
representatives of the so-called Damascus Declaration for reform.
The new grouping is to hold a general assembly of 190 members at the
beginning of next month, “probably in Turkey,” Kodmani said. The SNC,
which is to elect a president, will have a 29-strong general secretariat
representing seven Syrian opposition factions.
SNC member Hassan Hashimi said they would comprise six members of the
Local Coordination.
AFP |
