UNITED KINGDOM: New Syrian opposition coalition faces uphill battle says a London-based Syria watcher Shashank Joshi

Record ID: 281590

  • Title: UNITED KINGDOM: New Syrian opposition coalition faces uphill battle says a London-based Syria watcher Shashank Joshi
  • Date: 12th November 2012
  • Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UK (NOVEMBER 12, 2012) (REUTERS) SHASHANK JOSHI, RESEARCH FELLOW AT RUSI (ROYAL UNITED SERVICES INSTITUTE) SEATED, LOOKING AT LAPTOP CLOSE OF JOSHI'S FACE COMPUTER SCREEN WITH NEWS ARTICLE ON SYRIAN OPPOSITION COALITION (SOUNDBITE) (English) SHASHANK JOSHI, RESEARCH FELLOW AT RUSI (ROYAL UNITED SERVICES INSTITUTE), SAYING: "I think the new council faces a
  • Embargoed: 27th November 2012 12:00
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  • Location: United Kingdom
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA9GKWWGHKGQRNJJO8R7OPKRR68
  • Story Text: Syria's new opposition coalition may not provide the answer to bringing together fractious rebel groups, said a London-based Syria watcher on Monday (November 12).
    Shashank Joshi, a research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) think-tank said the new council faces many of the same problems that challenged the previous Syrian National Council.
    "It still faces the problem of being distant from those on the ground with the guns. And it still faces the problem that ultimately it is an organisation based outside of Syria and therefore has the problem that it struggles to command the loyalty and legitimacy of those inside the country," he said.
    The new coalition was formed after days of wrangling in Qatar under constant cajoling by Arab, US and other officials, groups including rebel fighters and ethnic and religious authorities.
    It was finally agreed that they will form a government-in-exile. Reformist Damascus cleric Mouaz Alkhatib was unanimously elected as its leader.
    Fifty-year-old Alkhatib, who fled into exile this year, has been jailed several times for criticising Assad. He has long promoted a liberal Islam tolerant of Syria's Christian, Alawite and other minorities.
    While the west will of course welcome the formation of this government in exile, Joshi said that does not necessarily mean the opposition coalition will get everything it wants in terms of arms supply, which could ultimately bring its downfall.
    "The international community, Western countries, will very much welcome this new council - for now - but that doesn't mean they will give it everything it wants. They will still be very careful in supplying weapons. They will still be careful about recognising the new council as the representative of Syrians and so this isn't the end of the problems that have really plagued the opposition. This is just a reasonably moderate incremental fix that may or may not succeed,"
    Joshi said.
    The success of the government in exile will depend on its voice and leadership being respected by those fighting inside the country.
    "So far this new organisation has done slightly better at listening to those inside Syria but it's not guaranteed it will succeed in taming what is increasingly a squabbling, divided set of militants on the ground itself," said Joshi.
    In signs of the serious danger of the 20-month conflict spreading across the region, Monday saw a surge of violence at two frontiers. Israel fired shells from across the line separating Syria from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, while Syrian warplanes bombed a rebel-held town on the Turkish border.
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