Syrian opposition wins Gulf, Arab recognition

EGYPT: The six Gulf states recognised a newly formed opposition bloc as the Syrian people's legitimate representative on Monday, as border violence stoked fears of a spillover of the 20-month conflict.

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) move came exactly a year after the Arab League suspended Syria's membership, and as the National Coalition met Arab foreign ministers in Cairo buoyed by the hard-won unity deal.

The League late on Monday called the coalition the opposition's “legitimate representative and main interlocutor with the Arab League,” and urged more opposition groups to join it.

“It is the legitimate representative of the Syrian opposition,” Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani, who heads the League group for Syria, told reporters.

His comments came after fighting flared on Syria's border with Turkey Monday as Israel fired across the ceasefire line on the Golan Heights for a second day, scoring direct hits on the source of a mortar round that struck the Israeli-occupied part of the territory.

Under Sunday's deal, the opposition agreed to establish a new supreme military council to take overall command of rebel groups on the ground and address US concerns that weapons have been reaching jihadist groups threatening to hijack the uprising.

The GCC members -- Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates -- were the first to recognise the opposition coalition.

AFP