Syrian National Council Live Blog

7 min 46 sec ago - Syria

The opposition Syrian National Council (SNC) hit back at reports on Wednesday that a leading dissident had resigned from the organisation, saying Fawaz Tello had never been a member.

Liberal politician Tello said on Tuesday he was leaving in protest at the council's failure to push through democratic reforms and unify the fractured opposition to President Assad.

The announcement was seen as a major blow to the embattled body that has seen several senior figures quit in the last few months. 

But the SNC released a statement on Wednesday saying it affirmed "after reviewing its membership list that Tello is not a member of the council and had not attended any of its meetings".

Tello, a former political prisoner who fled Syria three months ago, told Reuters he was surprised by the statement. 

"I became an SNC member while in Syria along with a number of comrades inside. I let my membership be known publicly when I left the country three months ago," he said. 

Tags Fawaz Tello, Syrian National Council
1 day 11 hours ago - Syria

The Syrian National Council opposition group re-elected liberal politician Burhan Ghalioun as president at a meeting in Rome on Tuesday, two sources at the meeting told Reuters.

Ghalioun, a secular academic, has been leader of the opposition in exile since August 2011 when the SNC was formed.
But he has been criticised for being out of touch with the opposition inside Syria and for failing to unify the SNC.

[Source: Reuters]

Tags Burhan Ghalioun, Syrian National Council
2 days 2 hours ago - Syria

The Arab League has postponed a Syrian opposition meeting it was due to host in Cairo this week in response to a request from Syrian opposition groups, the Arab League said in a statement on Monday.

The meeting had been scheduled to take place on Wednesday and Thursday. The statement from the Arab League said the postponement had been at the request of the Syrian National Council and the National Co-ordination Body. [Reuters]

Tags National Coordination Body, Syrian National Council, talks
2 days 10 hours ago - Italy

The Syrian National Council will not take part in talks sponsored by the Arab League aimed at uniting the opposition, a member of the bloc's executive council said told Reuters Monday.

 "The SNC will not be going to the meeting in Cairo because it (the Arab League) has not invited the group as an official body but as individual members," Ahmed Ramadan said in Rome. 

Tags Arab League, dialogue, syria, Syrian National Council
4 days 8 hours ago - Rome
The Syrian National Council (SNC), a fractious umbrella group opposed to President Bashar al-Assad, gathered on Saturday for three days of talks aimed at deciding on its own leadership and shoring up its credibility at home and abroad. 
 
Two SNC executive committee members, Samir Nashar and George Sabra, said the council was discussing whether to reelect Burhan Ghalioun, its president since it was set up in exile in August. 
 
The Paris-based academic has been criticised for being out of touch with the opposition inside Syria and for failing to unify the SNC, which has yet to win full international recognition as the Syrian people's legitimate representative. 
 
"We are in heated discussions over the presidency ... We are against an extension or a renewal of Burhan Ghalioun's term," said Nashar, a member of the Damascus Declaration, a faction within the SNC. 
 
"We are in favour of transition because it gives all the various Syrian political components a chance in the post," Nashar told Reuters in Rome, where the SNC was meeting. 
 
Nashar, who left Syria after an initial arrest in Aleppo in 2006, said he favoured Sabra to lead the SNC "for many reasons, mainly because he is an opposition member from inside Syria".
 
Interviewed separately, Sabra declined to say if he was a candidate, but advocated radical reforms for a group that has been prone to political wrangling and a lack of transparency. 
 
"We have to change the way decisions are made between people, between the establishments of the SNC, between the components of the SNC," he said, without elaborating. 
 
Sabra spent years in prison under Assad's rule and that of his father and predecessor Hafez al-Assad before fleeing to France last year. He has acted as a spokesman for the SNC. 
 
"We need so many things to be changed," he said. "We have a plan, we have a committee that did something good ... but we have to reach the end of these (reforms)." 
 
Nashar is among those who argue that putting Sabra, a Christian, at the head of the SNC would help reassure Syrian minorities wary of the largely Sunni Muslim revolt that their rights would be respected if Assad, whose minority Alawite sect dominates power, is overthrown. 
[Reuters]
Tags syria, Syrian National Council
5 days 14 hours ago - France

Burhan Ghalioun, the leader of the opposition bloc Syrian National Council, said on Friday at a news conference in Tokyo that the cease-fire brokered by U.N. envoy Kofi Annan was "in crisis" because it lacks teeth to punish non-compliance.

Assad's regime has blamed Thursday's attacks on terrorists it says are behind the 14-month uprising.

But Ghalioun said the bombers were "radical forces" linked to Syrian leadership, which he said had cooperated with al-Qaida against US forces in Iraq.

Tags Burhan Ghalioun, damascus, syria, Syrian National Council
6 days 14 hours ago - Syria

Syria's main opposition group said the regime in Damascus was behind two deadly blasts that rocked the capital, leaving dozens killed and wounded according to initial reports.

"The regime is behind this," said Samir Nashar, of the Syrian National Council's executive branch.

He said the aim of the blasts was to send a warning to UN observers monitoring a tenuous truce in Syria that they were in danger and to impress upon the international community that the regime was battling "terrorists".

[AFP]

Tags damascus, Samir Nashar, Syrian National Council
1 week 10 hours ago - Syria

The Syrian National Council opposition bloc on Wednesday accused the Syrian regime of being behind a blast that targeted a UN convoy, injuring six soldiers but leaving the peace monitors unharmed.

"We believe the regime is using these tactics to try to push the observers out amid popular demands to increase their numbers," SNC executive committee member Samir Nashar told AFP news agency.

Tags Samir Nashar, Syrian National Council
1 week 2 days ago - Beijing

 

China said on Monday it hoped parliamentary elections being held in Syria would help promote reform in the conflict-torn country, as the leader of the nation's opposition visited Beijing.

"We hope this will help promote Syria's reform process and respond to the reasonable requests of the Syrian people for the protection of their interests," foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei told reporters.

His comments came as Burhan Ghalioun, head of the opposition Syrian National Council, visited China. He is due to meet foreign ministry officials on his trip, which ends Wednesday, but no other information has been released so far.

China has traditionally backed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and it drew international criticism earlier this year for vetoing two UN Security Council resolutions on the crisis, along with Russia. But at the same time, Beijing has made contact with opposition parties in the country. It has also backed UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan's efforts to bring peace to Syria.

[Source: AFP]

Tags Elections, syria, Syrian National Council
1 week 5 days ago - Syria

Syrian opposition groups are calling for mass protests a day after a raid by security forces on dormitories at Aleppo University killed four students and forced the closure of the state-run school.

Friday is the day of weekly anti-regime protests in Syria, when thousands of demonstrators regularly take to the street calling for President Bashar al-Assad's ouster.

The university incident sparked outrage in the northwestern city of Aleppo and activists said new protests were expected.

The Syrian National Council opposition group urged students across Syria to stage a strike.

The group also said the international community through its silence was encouraging the Assad regime to continue with its brutal crackdown on dissent. [AP]

Tags Bashar al Assad, Syrian National Council
Content on this website is for general information purposes only. Your comments are provided by your own free will and you take sole responsibility for any direct or indirect liability. You hereby provide us with an irrevocable, unlimited, and global license for no consideration to use, reuse, delete or publish comments, in accordance with Community Rules & Guidelines and Terms and Conditions.

Al Jazeera Live

What's Hot


Recent Comments

This work is licensed under Creative Commons. Please read our attribution policy.