New coalition seeks to oust Syrian president Assad
(Vatican Radio) The road to forming a new coalition came to an end on Sunday in Doha,
Qatar when Syria’s fractured opposition groups agreed to join an assembly whose ultimate
goal is to topple President Bashar al-Assad.
This coalition, known as “The
National Coalition of the Syrian Revolutionary Forces and the Opposition" will be
led by reformist Damascus cleric Mouaz al-Khatib who was elected President. In a speech
he said it was the coalition’s aim to build a free, just and fair society in Syria:
“We
need humanitarian aid, and we need to stop the bloodshed, and we need to work in order
to get rid of this regime and to build a free and just and fair society in Syria.”
Arab
and Western backers including the United States had strongly promoted the plan for
the Doha meeting to unite the various factions in the hope the coalition can form
a government in exile.
The US Assistant Secretary of State for the Near East,
Elizabeth Jones says her country wants to co-operate with the new coalition.
“We
want to work with and cooperate fully with this new coalition,” she said, “because
we share the goal of Bashar al-Assad leaving power.”
The conflict in Syria
has seen over 36 thousand people killed and thousands more have fled the country.
It
has also led to tensions with neighbouring countries. The Israeli military said it
had fired warning shots into Syria at the weekend, after a mortar round from Syria
hit an Israeli outpost in the occupied Golan Heights.
As the violence also
continues inside of Syria the Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who was in
Doha for the talks, said there was "no excuse now" for the international community
not to recognise the Syrian opposition.