DOHA/BEIRUT: Opposition chief
Ahmad Moaz al-Khatib took Syria’s seat at the
Arab League Tuesday as leaders gathered for the annual summit gave member states the “right” to arm rebels in the war-torn country.
The Doha summit affirmed the “right of every state to offer all forms
of self-defense, including military, to support the resistance of the
Syrian people and the Free Syrian Army.”
However, “efforts aimed at reaching a political solution to the Syrian crisis are a priority,” the resolution added.
It was a historic meeting,” said opposition spokesman Yaser Tabbara.
“It’s a first step towards acquiring full legal legitimacy.”
Lebanon, for its part, maintained its policy of disassociation on Syria, with President
Michel Sleiman
telling heads of Arab states “we disassociate ourselves from this
decision pertaining to Syria” on the basis of the “concern of the
Lebanese being plunged into violence and strife over the recurring
violence in Syria.”
Launching into a fiery speech after leading an opposition delegation
into the Doha meeting to thunderous applause from Arab leaders, Khatib
also demanded that the opposition be allowed to represent Syria at the
United Nations.
Khatib, who threw the opposition into disarray by announcing his
resignation Sunday, made it clear that he was still firmly at the helm
of the Syrian National Coalition, the main opposition umbrella grouping.
Taking the seat at the invitation of Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Hamad bin
Khalifa al-Thani, Khatib was flanked by other senior opposition figures,
including newly elected rebel Prime Minister Ghassan Hitto.
“We demand ... all forms of support from our friends and brothers
including our full right for self-defense and the seat of Syria at the
United Nations and at other international organizations,” he said.
He called for a “freezing of the funds of the regime which it stole
from our people,” estimated by the opposition at around $2 billion.
He also stressed that the Syrian people alone would determine the future of their country.
“They ask who will rule Syria. The people of Syria will decide, not
any other state in this world,” Khatib said in an apparent allusion to
the influence of Qatar and its heavyweight neighbor Sadui Arabia over
the opposition.
Khatib, a moderate Sunni preacher from Damascus, made a blunt call on
other Arab leaders to “fear God in dealing with your people” and free
political prisoners – a departure from anodyne tradition at the League.
But he also criticized what he called Western failure to bring an end
to the conflict, and said an influx of foreign Islamist fighters should
not be used by the West as a pretext to deny meaningful help. He
denounced the presence in Syria of Iranians and Russians he said were
backing the government.
The Syrian seat had been empty since the League suspended it in
November 2011 after Damascus rejected calls to end violence against
protesters and instead pressed a bloody crackdown on dissent.
Protests escalated into an armed rebellion against Assad’s regime and
later into a civil war. Syrian state television did not cover the
meeting but pro-government outlets reacted furiously to the decision.
“Shame on you, Arab brothers,” wrote state-owned daily Tishreen.
“This theft that the sheikhdom of Qatar and other collaborator,
treacherous, backward Arab regimes have committed by handing the
Doha-sponsored Coalition the Syrian state’s membership ... is a legal, political and moral crime,” it said.
Regime supporters hacked the Arab League website to protest the decision.
They accused the league of having “crowned its allegiance to the
mini-gas state of Qatar, Israel’s ally, by handing the seat of the
Syrian Arab Republic ... to this illegitimate dwarf called the Coalition.”
Khatib made no mention of his resignation and said ahead of the summit that it would be dealt with after the meeting was over.
Spokesman
Khaled
al-Saleh said the resignation “has not been accepted” and that “most
members of the coalition want him to continue to lead” at this time.
But Khatib pointedly expressed his confidence in Hitto.
“We trust him. The general assembly of the Coalition awaits his program to debate it,” he said.
However, a group of prominent opposition members criticized the role of the
Muslim Brotherhood in the Coalition and accused regional governments of “hegemony” over the body.
In a letter to the Arab League, they said “the crisis in the Syrian
opposition is worsening ... [because of] what is happening inside the
National Coalition and the actions of those who dominate it.”
Although the letter made no explicit reference to the Brotherhood, it
came amid discontent in the opposition over the election of Hitto,
widely understood to have been the Brotherhood’s choice.
Meanwhile, Khatib said he had asked U.S. Secretary of State
John Kerry
to extend the protection of Patriot missile batteries deployed along
the Turkish border into northern Syria, and that Kerry had “promised to
look into the matter.”
“We are still awaiting a decision from NATO on this matter,” Khatib said.
But White House spokesman
Jay Carney
responded by saying that “we are aware of the request” but “at this
time, NATO does not intend to intervene militarily in Syria.”
Kerry is in Paris for talks with French officials about aid to the Syrian opposition.
daily stars.