CHALLENGING REGIME PROPAGANDA: SNC opposition chief reassures minorities in post-Assad Syria - Alarabiya.net English

 

Jarba said minorities would be the “main fabric” of Syria following the removal of Assad. (Photo courtesy: al-Hayat)

 

Al Arabiya

Syrian National Coalition (SNC) chief Ahmad Jarba on Sunday sent comforting messages to ethnic minorities, saying they would be the “main fabric” of the country following the removal of President Bashar al-Assad.

“When the regime collapses, Syria’s minorities will be part of the main fabric of Syria and part of the main components that make up the country,” Jarba told pan-Arab newspaper al-Hayat.

“The regime plays the card of making minorities in the country panic. They are made to believe that the opposition is a group of extremists who want to hijack the country and kill others.”

Among other minorities, Jarba said Turkmen representatives and Alawites were part of the coalition, although not as many Alawites are involved as Jarba would hope for.

“Before the revolution, an opposition member who is not Alawite would be imprisoned for five years while the opposition member who is an Alawite would be imprisoned for ten years - that is double. And now, (the regime) executes any Alawite defector it finds....................

FULL ARTICLE HERE: SNC opposition chief reassures minorities in post-Assad Syria - Alarabiya.net English | Front Page

Syria’s Attasi, first Arab woman to head Arab League session - Alarabiya.net English | Front Page

Syrian opposition figure Suhair Atassi was born in Damascus and descends from prominent family in Homs. (AFP) 

Al Arabiya -

Suhair Atassi, vice-president of the Syrian opposition National Coalition, on Tuesday became the first Arab woman to head a session at the Arab League summit.

Atassi lead a Syrian delegation in a live sitting during the summit in the absence of the coalition’s leader Moaz al-Khatib.

Atassi was born in Damascus and descends from a prominent family in Homs. She started the Jamal al-Atassi National Dialogue Forum in 2001, which she named after her father, a pan-Arab nationalist who inspired opposition against Assad in 1973, according to the Carnegie Middle East Center................

FULL ARTICLE HERE: Syria’s Attasi, first Arab woman to head Arab League session - Alarabiya.net English | Front Page

GOOD NEWS FOR SYRIAN OPPRESSED: Doha summit gives Arab states 'right' to arm Syria rebels - Alarabiya.net English | Front Page

Arab League leaders and delegates pose for a picture at the opening of the Arab League summit in the Qatari capital Doha on March 26, 2013. (AFP)

Al Arabiya with Agencies - 
 

The Arab summit in Doha on Tuesday gave member states the “right” to offer Syrians all means of self-defense including arms, in a resolution on Syria.

Leaders at the Doha meeting condemned President Bashar al-Assad’s regime’s violations against the Syrian people and urged for providing urgent aid to refugees in Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq.

The Arab League members ensured Syrians’ right to return the Golan Heights, which were occupied by Israel in 1967.

Syria’s opposition chief took the Syria seat at the Arab body and demanded in a fiery address that the Syrian opposition be granted Syria’s seat at the United Nations...................

FULL ARTICLE: Doha summit gives Arab states 'right' to arm Syria rebels - Alarabiya.net English | Front Page

Syria opposition refuses leader's resignation - Middle East - Al Jazeera English

FULL ARTICLE W/VIDEO HERE: Syria opposition refuses leader's resignation - Middle East - Al Jazeera English

BBC News - Syrian opposition leader Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib resigns

The leader of the opposition Syrian National Coalition (SNC), Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib, has resigned.

In a statement on his Facebook page, Mr Khatib said he was leaving the job as he wanted to work with more freedom than an official institution allowed.

He had promised the Syrian people he would resign if what he called certain red lines were reached, he said.

He appeared to criticise the world community for not doing enough to stop two years of bloodshed in Syria.......

FULL ARTICLE: BBC News - Syrian opposition leader Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib resigns

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

Twelve candidates compete to be Syrian opposition’s next interim PM - Alarabiya.net English | Front Page

Syrian army fighters carry Joseph, a 19-year-old fighter of the Aoun-bi-allah Brigade which operates under the Free Syrian Army, in a blanket after a sniper shot him in his abdomen in Aleppo March 16, 2013. (Reuters)

Al Arabiya with Agencies - 

Twelve candidates are running for interim prime minister of a government to rule rebel-controlled areas in Syria, the country’s main opposition group said Sunday.

The Western-backed Syrian National Coalition is set to elect the prime minister this week at a gathering of in Istanbul, Turkey.

The opposition, still largely based in exile, first raised the idea of an interim government months ago. Divisions among opposition figures caused repeated delays in forming it.

Some opposition members favor the creation of an executive body with limited powers to administer rebel-held territory...........

FULL ARTICLE: Twelve candidates compete to be Syrian opposition’s next interim PM - Alarabiya.net English | Front Page

Syrian opposition agree to elect provisional prime minister next week - Alarabiya.net English | Front Page

Friday, 8 March 2013

Syrian opposition coalition leaders, President Moaz al-Khatib, right, and Vice President Riad Seif, second from right, in talks with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in Rome. ( AFP )

The opposition Syrian National Coalition will meet in Istanbul next week to elect a provisional prime minister to run a political transition if President Bashar al-Assad falls, coalition members said on Thursday.  

 The opposition wants to create a provisional government to administer rebel-held areas in Syria and to show it can fill a power vacuum left by collapsing state institutions, putting structures in place to curb chaos in a post-Assad era.  

 The Istanbul meeting on March 12 and 13 was called after former Prime Minister Riad Hijab, the highest-ranking civilian defector from President Bashar al-Assad's government, withdrew his candidacy, several coalition members said..........

FULL ARTICLE:
Syrian opposition agree to elect provisional prime minister next week - Alarabiya.net English | Front Page

First free Syrian Diaspora elections in Turkey, U.N. offers to broker peace deal

Over 200 Syrians have attended their first free election to cast ballots in the Turkish city of Ghazi Intab to elect their next representative for the province of Aleppo. (Reuters)

By Al Arabiya

For the first time since Bashar al-Assad and his family have been in power, Syrians held their first democratic polls in the Turkish city Ghazi Intab to elect representatives for the city of Aleppo.
 
More than 250 people attended the polls and among them was the Syrian National Coalition leader Moaz al-Khatib along with the Syrian American Council’s senior political advisor and director of strategy Mohammed Ghanem.
 
In a statement after the elections, the United Nations said it was prepared to broker peace talks between Syria’s regime and opposition.
 
"The United Nations would welcome and be prepared to facilitate a dialogue between a strong and representative delegation from the opposition and a credible and empowered delegation from the Syrian government," a joint statement by Ban Ki-moon and his top envoy for the conflict Lakhdar Brahimi said Saturday................

FULL ARTICLE HERE: First free Syrian elections in Turkey, U.N. to broker peace deal

NEW PLEDGES CHANGE STANCE: BBC News - Syria opposition to join Rome talks after foreign aid pledge

 

The UK said it was ready to 'significantly increase' its support for Syria's opposition

LINK: BBC News - Syria opposition to join Rome talks after foreign aid pledge

Syrian opposition condemns 'world inaction' - Middle East - Al Jazeera English

The organized Syrian opposition calls it like it is, a world as cowardly in the face of savage oppression and slaughter as it was during the Rwandan massacres, although this time there is still no clear end in sight, just more horror.



  ARTICLE/VIDEO LINK: Syrian opposition condemns 'world inaction' - Middle East - Al Jazeera English

Syria opposition to boycott upcoming talks - Middle East - Al Jazeera English

Demonstrations against President Bashar al-Assad's government have continued in the northern city [Reuters]

The most prominent Syrian opposition group, the Syrian National Coalition (SNC), has announced it is pulling out of the upcoming Friends of Syria meeting in Rome and scheduled talks in Russia and the United States.


After missiles killed dozens in Aleppo on Friday, the SNC released a statement saying the move was to protest the lack of international condemnation of the "crimes committed against the Syrian people".

"Hundreds of civilians have been killed by Scud missile strikes. Aleppo, the city and the civilisation, is being destroyed systematically," the statement said.

"The Russian leadership especially bears moral and political responsibility for supplying the regime with weapons," it added, referring to Moscow's status as a leading ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

"In protest of this shameful international stand, the coalition has decided to suspend its participation in the Rome conference for the Friends of Syria and decline the invitations to visit Russia and the United States."

FULL ARTICLE HERE: Syria opposition to boycott upcoming talks - Middle East - Al Jazeera English

SNC chief says opposition united on Assad’s departure

Moaz al-Khatib had said he was willing to hold talks with Assad’s representatives in rebel-held areas of northern Syria to try to end a conflict that has killed about 60,000 people. (AFP)

LINK: SNC chief says opposition united on Assad’s departure