Blow for West after resignation of Syria opposition chief
ThE head of syria’s main opposition group resigned yesterday, weakening the moderate wing of the two-year revolt against President Bashar al-assad’s rule and complicating Western efforts to back the rebels.
The resignation of Moaz alkhatib, a former imam of the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus who had offered Mr assad a negotiated exit, could make the West more cautious in supporting the revolt.
Mr alkhatib was seen as a moderate bulwark against the rising influence of al-Qaeda linked jihadist forces. syrian opposition leaders are due to attend an arab league summit this week looking for more support for their armed uprising.
Michael stephens, researcher at the Royal United services institute in Doha, said Mr alkhatib’s resignation throws a spanner into the summit.
“The premise of the summit is to determine whether the opposition has a legitimate right to sit with arab states,” Mr stephens said. “While Khatib may have blamed the EU summit, it is well known that the arab league is meeting today, and his resignation will have a serious effect on the process.”
Mr alkhatib was picked to head the Western and Gulfbacked National coalition for syrian Revolutionary and Opposition forces, which was formed in Qatar in November. his resignation is seen as having been to some degree caused by Qatar, the main backer of his political foes in the coalition, and the country spearheading arab support for the revolt as its geopolitical ramifications deepen.
The conflict pits syria’s sunni Muslim majority against Mr assad’s alawite sect, an offshoot of shiite islam that has controlled the country for almost five decades, deepening the sunni-shiite divide in the Middle East and raising tension between Gulf states and iran.
asked to comment on Mr alkhatib’s resignation, Qatari foreign minister sheikh hamad bin Jassim al-Thani said in Doha: “We are very sorry for this, and i hope he reviews his resignation.”
Mr alkhatib quit after the coalition berated him for offering Mr assad a deal and after the group went ahead, despite his objections, with steps to form a provisional government that would have further diminished his authority. “i had promised the great syrian people and promised God that i would resign if matters reached some red lines,” Mr alkhatib said in a statement on his official facebook page.
Us secretary of state John Kerry, on a trip to Baghdad, expressed regret at Mr alhatib’s decision.
“With respect to Moaz alkhatib, i am personally sorry to see him go because i like him on a personal level and because i have appreciated his leadership,” Mr Kerry said.
he made an unannounced visit to iraq yesterday and said he told prime minister Nuri al-Maliki of his concern about iranian flights over iraq carrying arms to syria. “anything that supports president assad is problematic,” Mr Kerry said.
last week, the coalition chose islamist-leaning Ghassan hitto as a provisional prime minister to form a government to fill a power vacuum in syria arising from the revolt that has killed more than 70,000 people.
Mr alkhatib, who had argued insufficient groundwork had been done to start forming a government, was weakened considerably, along with a moderate wing of the revolution as jihadist salafists play a bigger role on the battlefield.
hittowas backed by the Muslim Brotherhood and coalition secretary General Mustafa sabbagh, who has strong links with Qatar.