Syria rebel PM "more Texan than Muslim Brotherhood"

Washington's envoy to Syria Robert Ford

The new Syrian opposition prime minister Ghassan al-Hitto "is more Texan than Muslim Brotherhood," Washington's envoy to Syria Robert Ford told US lawmakers Wednesday.

Dismissing concerns at a hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Ford insisted that Hitto, narrowly elected this week by the Syrian National Coalition as interim premier, was "not a religious extremist -- far from it."

"I've met him twice... and he struck me as more Texan than Muslim Brotherhood, frankly," Ford said of Hitto, a former IT executive who has lived in the southwestern US state of Texas for decades.

"I don't know what his political affiliations are. But I do know that he also has a tolerant vision of Syrian society," Ford stressed......


FULL ARTICLE: Syria rebel PM "more Texan than Muslim Brotherhood"

BBC News - Syrian opposition names Ghassan Hitto prime minister

 

The meeting came shortly after the second anniversary of the uprising.

Syria's opposition National Coalition has chosen a prime minister to head a government for rebel-held regions.

He is Ghassan Hitto, a Damascus-born IT expert who spent decades in the US. He was elected at a meeting of coalition leaders in Istanbul in Turkey.

Mr Hitto's first task will be to form a government to oversee services in areas captured from government forces.


BBC News - Syrian opposition names Ghassan Hitto prime minister