The Organisation for Democracy and Freedom in Syria

Alternative content

Get Adobe Flash player

Find a video

Ribal Al-Assad cautions US against recognising Syrian Coalition as sole legitimate representative of the Syrian people

Friday, 30 November 2012

U.S. Moves Toward Recognizing Syria’s Opposition

The New York Times (www.nytimes.com)

29 November 2012

WASHINGTON — The United States is moving toward recognizing the Syrian opposition as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people as soon as it fully develops its political structure, American officials said Thursday.

A decision to recognize the group could be announced at a so-called Friends of Syria meeting that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is expected to attend in Morocco on Dec. 12. It is the most immediate decision facing the Obama administration as it considers how to end the government of Bashar al-Assad and stop the violence that has consumed Syria.

President Obama has not signed off on the move, and the meetings to decide the issue have yet to be held. Debates within the administration concern legal issues about the implications of diplomatic recognition, how such a move might affect efforts to enlist Russian support for a political transition in Syria and, most importantly, the state of the opposition.

Britain, France, Turkey and the Gulf Cooperation Council have already recognized the opposition, which was enlarged and overhauled at a meeting in Doha, Qatar, last month at the insistence of the United States and other nations. It is formally known as the National Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces.

Commenting on the story, Ribal Al-Assad, Director of the ODFS, said:

"I strongly caution the US government against recognising the National Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces as the sole legitimate representative of the Syrian people as it is not an all inclusive group.

"Prior to the recent meeting in Doha, Qatar, to unify the Syrian opposition, Secretary Clinton said that 'there needs to be an opposition that speaks to every segment and every geographic part of Syria.' Yet many major groups were excluded from the meeting in Doha. Furthermore what was the process of selecting the groups who participated? What gives them 'legitimacy' and not others? Therefore it is clear that this group of about 300 people cannot be the sole legitimate representatives of the Syrian people. It was just a unification of the groups that attended the meeting. How is that genuinely inclusive and representative?

"The major opposition groups that were excluded are the National Coordination Committee (NCC), the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), the Syrian National Democratic Council (SNDC), Building the Syrian State and many other groups from the internal opposition in Syria. So by definition the Coalition does not represent or speak for every segment and every geographic part of Syria. Therefore it is not a credible opposition or government in waiting. It must also be noted that one third of this coalition is made up of the discredited SNC.

'Friends of Syria' meetings should involve all opposition groups and be held in and overseen by democratic countries. Dictatorships in the Middle East should not be brokering and overseeing blueprints for democracy in Syria purely on the basis that they are not democracies or honest brokers.

"All parties participating in 'Friends of Syria' meetings should be signing a commitment to a pluralist representative democracy in Syria, non violence, the rule of law, the protection and promotion of fundamental rights for all citizens, freedom of expression and association, equality for all citizens under the rule of law regardless of religion, ethnic group or sex, religious pluralism and the principles of the Kofi Annan Plan i.e., demilitarisation of the conflict, a ceasefire, ending the flow of arms, dialogue and a peaceful Syrian-led transition.

"I call on the US and the EU to bring together all the Syrian opposition groups onto one platform so that an inclusive, democratic and peaceful transition can take place."

More news articles