Syrian opposition admits liberals after inconclusive talks

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Syria's opposition, under pressure to broaden its Islamist-dominated leadership, struggled to overcome deep rifts on Thursday and form a united front for a proposed international conference to try to end the Syrian civil war.

Delegates at inconclusive talks in Istanbul agreed to add 14 named members of a liberal bloc led by veteran figure Michel Kilo to the 60-member assembly of the Syrian National Coalition, the closest body that President Bashar al-Assad's foes have to an overall civilian leadership in the two-year-old uprising.

The coalition also agreed in principle to admit another 14 members of activists' groups from inside Syria and 15 members linked to the Free Syrian Army, an umbrella organization for anti-Assad fighters.

But a neutral mechanism to choose these 29 new members has not been agreed and another battle to name them is shaping up for the next coalition meeting on June 12, members said.

That partial breakthrough, which followed eight days of talks and required the intervention of Turkey and Western and Arab nations, effectively creates a new Saudi-backed bloc in the coalition but leaves Qatar's allies, whose control was threatened by the expansion, with significant influence, coalition insiders said.

"The Qatar-backed bloc withstood the challenge. Saudi Arabia will not be very pleased. We are looking at another push and pull marathon for new names in June," a senior source in the coalition said.

International powers fear that unless deep fissures in the opposition ranks are healed, the chances of a successful Geneva peace conference happening soon, sponsored by Russia and the United States, are slight.

But many hurdles remain in the process to choose new leaders for a coalition that has been rudderless since March and to name a provisional government that could strengthen what are now weak links with rebel units inside Syria.

Acting coalition head George Sabra said agreeing the names of the new members required "long deliberations" because they represented "quality not quantity."

Sounding optimistic, Sabra said: "The coalition has succeeded in undergoing the expansion." He added that choosing a new coalition president has been postponed at least until June 12.

UNDERCUT RUSSIA

Hours before the announcement, a U.S. State Department spokeswoman said Washington was "hopeful that the opposition will vote to elect leadership and to come to a conclusion on how they will expand their membership."

"We ... expect when they make their final decisions we will be able to work with those leadership members and move forward in planning the Geneva conference," she said.

The coalition is controlled by the powerful Muslim Brotherhood and a faction loyal to Mustafa al-Sabbagh, a businessman who has been Qatar's point man for channeling financial and armed support to the opposition.

Thursday's announcement gives Kilo's bloc 11 seats less than the 25 he had demanded, and also adds more allies of Sabbagh's and other factions to the assembly.

If Kilo manages to increase his share of delegates at the expense of Sabbagh's, he could lessen the dominant influence of Qatar and give Saudi Arabia more influence in opposition politics as Riyadh backs the Kilo bid and improves its ties with the Brotherhood.

Lebanese Shi'ite guerrillas from Iranian-backed Hezbollah are openly fighting alongside government forces in Syria. Opposition sources say Saudi Arabia is keen to play a greater role in backing the Sunni-led opposition against Assad, who belongs to the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam that has controlled Syria since the 1960s.

Kilo, a multilingual, soft-spoken former political prisoner, came out of the meeting room accompanied by a senior official of the Muslim Brotherhood, which lent de facto support to Kilo in the haggling over the expansion of the assembly.

The Brotherhood has good links with Qatar and is also influenced by Turkey, which gave Brotherhood members fleeing Syrian repression refuge in the 1980s.

Kamal al-Labwani, a maverick member of the coalition, said a rapprochement between the liberal and Islamist wings of the opposition could help it undercut Russian attempts to have figures among the representatives of the opposition at Geneva who are willing to allow Assad to stay in power.

"It is very dangerous to allow an opposition delegation to go to Geneva without sticking to the goals of the revolution, or accept an early ceasefire under the excuse that the people are tired, without guarantees that the regime will depart," Labwani said.

"An incomplete peace that awards a de facto pardon to Bashar and his cohorts will be far more costly than a continuation of the war."

(Reporting by Khaled Yacoub Oweis; Additional reporting by Lesley Wroughton in Washington; Editing by Andrew Roche and Eric Beech)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syrian-opposition-admits-liberals-inconclusive-talks-002720054.html

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