Syria’s opposition

Higher hopes

Can Syria’s new opposition coalition make a difference?

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Readers' comments


Wim Roffel

Brahimi has been a failure. He hasn't made a single effort to get the parties at one table. He hasn't expressed disappointment that the rebel organisation - as composed by its puppetmasters in Riad and Washington - doesn't want to talk. His idea of mediation is imposing a "transition" plan that both parties should sign and that should lead to elections.

This is foolishness. In a situation where neither party feels safe if the other side wins one should negotiate first about how the country should look like in the future and turn that in a kind of constitution. And even then elections risk to be manipulated by both sides in the area that they control (as happened in Ivory Coast).


"Mr Khatib has called for more than humanitarian aid to help cement his coalition’s authority, but officials from warier countries, including Britain and the United States, say recognition will come only if the new lot sets up effective technical committees, proves its popularity with Syrians on the ground, and brings most of the rebel groups under its umbrella."

Good luck to them. Hopefully (assuming that The Economist is correct in predicting that after months of slow progress, Bashar Assad’s opponents have the upper hand) real democrats will be able to defeat Assad and marginalize jihadist groups.

That being said, I'm not real hopeful about the chances of the US getting more involved in the situation, much less helping stabilize and rebuild post-war Syria. It'll be unfortunate if that's the way it plays out- the US will have lost a vital opportunity to help those who share our commitment to democracy and religious tolerance.


It remains to be seen whether the Syrian National Coalition for Opposition and Revolutionary Forces can overcome the mutual suspicions that have existed now for almost two years in ending more than four decades of rule by the Assad dynasty.

The United States had strongly promoted the plan for the Doha meeting to unite the various warring factions by subsuming the previously ineffectual Syrian National Council into a wider body that would be more inclusive of minorities from a country of great ethnic and religious diversity.

France, a vocal western backer of the rebels and which once ruled Syria, lauded the Doha deal and said that it will work with its partners to secure international recognition of the new Coalition as the representative of the aspirations of the Syrian people. France has referred to the Assad government as the ‘criminal regime in Damascus’.

It is hoped now that a more cohesive opposition can break a stalemate in the civil war and win more military and diplomatic support from allies, some of whom have been wary of the influence of anti-Western fighters linked to groups such as al-Qaeda.

There has been renewed talk in Turkey (and elsewhere) of instigating some kind of no-fly zones and other forms of protection for refugees and ill-equipped armed rebels under constant bombardment from Assad’s air force. Western governments, though, have shown little appetite for new military ventures in such a complex and volatile region.

Given the long arguments that were had over how to form the new opposition assembly, the speed by which a consensus emerged in allowing Mouaz al-Khatib to stand for the post of president was notable and may encourage still further supporters of this newly created anti-Assad Coalition.

His deputies will be Riad Seif, a veteran dissident who had proposed the US-backed initiative to set up an umbrella group uniting groups inside and outside of Syria, and Suhair al-Atassi, one of the few women with a leading role.

Having studied and worked as an engineer, Khatib rose to prominence as an Islamic preacher. At one point he was the Imam of the historic Umayyad mosque in Damascus.

Khatib has been arrested several times since the start of the Syrian revolution. He often demanded an end to the violence against peaceful protesters by Assad’s Syrian army, facing the wrath when arrested. He fled to Cairo after his release.

Khatib has been critical of the role Islamists have played in the Syrian uprising inferring that their prominence has allowed the West to portray the uprising as extremist. Notable, too, is that Khatib has long promoted a liberal Islam tolerant of Syria's Christian, Alawite and other minorities. Critics of the former Syrian National Council had said it was too much influenced by the Sunni Islamist Muslim Brotherhood and too little open to minorities, including Alawites, some 10 per cent of the population who fear a backlash if Assad is overthrown after a war that has taken on increasingly sectarian characteristics.

The international community should become an integral part in moving Syria forward. It could help to provide a humanitarian corridor and/or the establishment of a no-fly zone, if needed, in the northern parts of the country – in Idlib province or in Aleppo.

Hayatte Abid in reply to MarkDowe

What a crap about the guy who believe that Facebook is a plot against muslims coming from the americans and israelis!!!!!Population in Aleppo is turning against your friends because they stole the wheat to sell it to the turks and beat up people without any reason.


The bloody stalemate will continue for as long as the West refuses to seriously back the opposition. The longer it continues, the more prominent the extremist elements within it will become.

I have met many Syrian opposition activists in Istanbul, and they all say much the same thing: the West must stop twiddling its thumbs and undermining them, and instead strengthen the moderate elements among them.

The Syrian National Council was - and is - far from perfect. But by sidelining and weakening it, Washington does itself few favours.

The narrative of Salafists and Al Qaeda fighters in Syria is that the West is complicit in the regime's crimes. The longer the battle rages, the more credence that narrative gains. We can hardly be surprised when Syrians become bitter towards a West they feel has abandoned them.

It is still possible to stop Syria turning into another Iraq. What is needed is a quick end to the battle. The best way to achieve this is by unifying the opposition's military command structure, giving it access to anti-aircraft weaponry, and imposing a no-fly zone.

The West must urgently re-think its policy towards the Syrian opposition.

(See this report on Salafists, by the International Crisis Group:

Hayatte Abid in reply to 4wdNU3KmkE

I'm a syrian and I don't need anything from you or from the cowards hidden in Istanbul. You are destroying my country and want to impose an islamist government upon us. We'll fight against your puppets until the end.



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