FRANCE: Syrian opposition body will be able to form a proper transitional authority if it can operate within secure zones supported by foreign powers, says Syrian National Council defector

Record ID: 281555

  • Title: FRANCE: Syrian opposition body will be able to form a proper transitional authority if it can operate within secure zones supported by foreign powers, says Syrian National Council defector
  • Date: 31st August 2012
  • Summary: PARIS, FRANCE (AUGUST 31, 2012) (REUTERS) FORMER SYRIAN NATIONAL COUNCIL MEMBER BASMA KODMANI TALKING TO JOURNALIST KODMANI SPEAKING OPPOSITION SYRIAN FLAG (SOUNDBITE) (English) FORMER SYRIAN NATIONAL COUNCIL MEMBER BASMA KODMANI SAYING: "The main weakness and the reasons that led me to leave the Council, is the feeling that the council did not provide the real strategic
  • Embargoed: 15th September 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: France
  • Country: France
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA3N7VZTE9SHPJJ9DUKI4C3TY2V
  • Story Text: Syrian opposition needs secure zones to form a credible transitional authority, a key opposition figure said on Friday (August 31).
    Basma Kodmani, who quit the Syrian National Council (SNC) this week saying it lacked coordination with forces on the ground, said a new authority would ideally incorporate the SNC, the Free Syria Army and all religious and ethnic groups.

    "The main weakness and the reasons that led me to leave the Council, is the feeling that the council did not provide the real strategic direction to the revolution and particularly with the emergence of the Free Syria Army and the growing importance of the Free Syria Army on the ground, I think the council needed to establish a consistent and coherent relationship with the groups on the ground," Kodmani told Reuters.
    She asked for the international community to support the Syrian opposition in its fight against the Assad's regime.

    "I think the signal today from the international community is we will help accelerate the fall of the Assad regime. We do need to see the end of this regime as quickly as possible, holding back is worst. There are risks in intervention, there are higher risks in not providing some form of real and decisive support to the Syrian people at this stage," Kodmani said.
    She welcomed a pledge by French President Francois Hollande to formally recognise a credible transitional body, but said that securing safe zones within Syria would be the best way to speed up its formation.
    With protection from foreign powers, Syrian opposition groups could likely form an inclusive and credible political authority on the ground in as little as three months, she said
    "So the protection of these areas (liberated areas) is really I think now a compelling responsibility for the international community, whether it is protected directly by a no-fly zone, whether this Free Syria Army is provided with the means to ensure that the regime cannot fly over these cities and bomb them with total impunity and protection," she said.
    Kodmani, a Paris-based academic who headed the Istanbul-based SNC's foreign affairs bureau, was speaking as French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said in New York that France plans to channel aid to rebel-held areas in northern and southern Syria.
    Western powers are reticent, however, to supply weapons to Syrian rebels or send warplanes to protect safe havens without a U.N. Security Council mandate, currently impossible because of opposition from veto-wielding members Russia and China.
    Kodmani said the difference between the West's response to events in Syria and the crisis in Libya, where a transitional council was recognised early on and a NATO intervention helped rebels topple Muammar Gaddafi, was holding up progress to a credible opposition authority.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register