Damascus opposition summit fails to form united leadership as internal disagreements mar attempts to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad
Syrian opposition groups have failed to form a united leadership at a meeting that exposed vast disagreements that have prevented them from effectively leading the uprising against President Assad.
An Arab League-sponsored conference in Cairo aimed at uniting the fractured Syrian opposition ended in chaos Tuesday when the Kurdish delegation stormed out.
The conference ended with an agreement on two documents, both vague: One provides a general outline to guide the opposition through a transitional period, while the other lays out the fundamental principles envisaged for a post-Assad Syria.
The delegates agreed in general terms on support for the Free Syrian Army, the dissolution of the ruling Baath Party and the exclusion of Assad or other senior regime figures from a place in the transition.
But they failed to reach an agreement on forming a unified body to represent the opposition.
The 250 participants seemed unable to agree on over key questions, including whether to ask for foreign military intervention to halt the violence and what role religion would play in a post-Assad Syria.
“It’s very dangerous at this point,” said Abdel-Aziz al-Khayyar, who spent 14 years in Syrian prisons and is now part of the Syrian National Co-ordination Body. “If we fail to unify as the opposition it is the greatest gift to the regime.”
The discord stems, in large, from the fact that the two largest opposition groups distrust each other. Members of the Syrian National Council accused the Syrian National Co-ordination Body, known as the NCB, of being too close to the regime.
For its part, the NCB accuses the SNC of being a front for the Muslim Brotherhood and Western powers.
One independent activist said all agreed that Assad must go, but that there are many different views of what follows.
“These are sensitive issues that go back to people’s ideologies,” said Ziad Hassan, 28. “It could take two years, not two days, to get over our differences.
This is a great feel good story. I love seeing muslims kill muslims. I see this ending as a good thing. May the killing go on for decades until the last muslim in Syria is dead. Yoffee!
The Saudis were not invited to that meeting, nor to the talks with Iran. Instead, they are reportedly pursuing their own tack in dealing with the Iran-Syria axis: having secured access to nuclear weapons from Pakistan, they are in the process of procuring ICBMs from China. They might even get nukes before the Iranians, and be able to control what happens in Syria to their advantage. Obama seems content with the prospect of the Muslim Brotherhood taking over the countries of the Middle East, and the Iranians countering them with nuclear blackmail. The Saudis are in neither group; in fact, they seem to be among the next on the list of regimes Obama plans to “convert”, the way he “converted” Mubarak. Once the Saudis get their nukes, things ought to liven up considerably in the neighborhood. Who’s next for nukes? Egypt? Turkey? Jordan? They collect nukes, and Obama will be collecting Peace prizes… then comes the end.