Syria opposition to assume Arab League seat

Officials say National Coalition will represent Syria in upcoming pan-Arab summit, as regional leaders arrive in Doha.

File photo of Syrian National Coalition leader Moaz Alkhatib speaking to the media in Cairo
Syrian National Coalition leader Mouaz al-Khatib said he would address the Arab League summit [Reuters]

The Syrian opposition will take over their nation’s vacant seat at the Arab League, a high-ranking league official has said, a day ahead of a summit of Arab leaders in Doha, Qatar.

“The opposition has been invited to the Arab summit and will occupy Syria’s seat at the Arab League,” the official told the AFP news agency on Monday, requesting anonymity.

The pan-Arab bloc had already suspended President Bashar al-Assad’s membership and recognised the coalition as the legitimate representative of the people of Syria.

The Arab summit takes place on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Syrian opposition leader Mouaz al-Khatib said he would address the summit. Khatib resigned on Sunday as head of the National Coalition, but the opposition bloc rejected his resignation.

“I have decided to give a speech in the name of the Syrian people at the Doha conference,” he wrote on his Twitter account. “This is a matter that has nothing to do with the resignation, which will be discussed later.” 

The National Coalition has been recognised by dozens of states and organisations as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people.

The Syrian government, meanwhile, criticised the Arab League for giving the country’s seat to the opposition, who it termed “bandits” and “thugs”.

“The League has handed Syria’s stolen seat to bandits and thugs, to the [opposition] Coalition which thinks it can sit in the name of the Syrian people,” the official al-Thawra newspaper said.

Syria ‘destruction’

Nizar al-Heraki, Syria’s opposition ambassador to Qatar, told Al Jazeera that he will be arriving in Doha along with Khatib from Cairo on Monday evening.

He said the reaction to Khatib’s announced resignation was “very strong.” He did not directly say whether Khatib will back off on his decision or not, but that the opposition leader “will see if the international community will fulfill the promises it made.”

Khatib on Sunday said he wanted to resign so he could “work with a freedom that cannot possibly be had in an official institution”.

“For the past two years, we have been slaughtered by an unprecedentedly vicious regime, while the world has looked on,” Khatib said in a statement released on his Facebook page.

“All the destruction of Syria’s infrastructure, the detention of tens of thousands of people, the forced flight of hundreds of thousands and other forms of suffering have been insufficient for the international community to take a decision to allow the people to defend themselves,” he added.

Khatib was picked as head of the coalition after it was formed in November. He was seen as a moderate bulwark against the rising influence of al-Qaeda-linked forces fighting in the revolt against Assad.

Meanwhile, violence continued in Syria on Monday, and the United Nations announced that it was temporarily reducing the presence of international staff in the capital Damascus due to an increase in security threats.

“Most of the Damascus-based staff of the Office of the Joint Representative for Syria are being temporarily relocated to Beirut and the Joint Special Representative’s main office in Cairo. All of the national staff of that Office have been asked to work from home, until further notice. These measures are being undertaken solely for security reasons,” said Martin Nesirky, a UN spokesperson, at UN headquarters in New York.

The UN has approximately 100 international and 800 Syrian staff working in Damascus, Nesirky said.

Source: Al Jazeera, News Agencies