Fabius recognizes Syrian opposition coalition as legitimate representative of Syrian people

French President Francois Hollande said on Tuesday that Paris would look at the question of arming the Syrian National Council once it had created a transitional government.

"On the question of weapons deliveries, France did not support it as long as it wasn't clear where these weapons went," Hollande told a news conference after announcing that Paris recognized the new opposition coalition as the sole representative of the Syrian people.   

"With the coalition, as soon as it is a legitimate government of Syria, this question will be looked at by France, but also by all countries that recognize this government."

In this context, Syria's newly named opposition leader, Mouaz AlKhatib, told Reuters on Tuesday he wanted European recognition and financial support for the new Syrian opposition coalition, saying this would allow it to act as a government and acquire arms.
   
"I request the European states to politically recognize the coalition as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people and to give it financial support," AlKhatib said in a phone interview.
   
"When we get the political recognition, this will make the coalition act as a government and hence acquire weapons and this will solve our problems," AlKhatib added.

In reaction to the new Syrian opposition coalition announced in Doha, the French minister of defense said on Tuesday that it was still too early to recognize this “newly formed” coalition, calling on all parties to spare no effort to unify all armed factions in Syria.  

For his part, France's Foreign Minister Fabien Fabius called for "the recognition of the Syrian coalition as an official representative of the Syrian people."  

In turn, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said the opposition coalition was an important step forward but more needed to be done before Britain would formally recognize it.  

"It is an important milestone," Hague told reporters at a meeting of Arab and European ministers at the headquarters of the Arab League in Cairo.       

"We want to see the Syrian opposition be inclusive ... and have support inside Syria and if they have this, yes, we will then recognize them as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people."


On the field

Earlier, a Syrian warplane struck homes in the town of Ras al-Ain on Tuesday within sight of the Turkish border, pursuing an aerial bombardment to force out rebels and drawing a new warning from Ankara.   

The second day of jet strikes sent Syrians scurrying through the flimsy barbed-wire fence that divides Ras al-Ain from the Turkish settlement of Ceylanpinar as thick plumes of smoke rose above the town.   

Medical workers and refugees in Ceylanpinar said bombing on Monday and Tuesday struck residential areas of Ras al-Ain, which fell to rebels last week during an advance into Syria's mixed Arab and Kurdish northeast.   

The offensive has caused some of the biggest refugee movements since the armed revolt against President Bashar al-Assad began in March last year, and brought the war back  perilously close to Turkish soil.

The Syrian Arab Red Crescent estimates that 2.5 million people are internally displaced within Syria by civil war, doubling the previous figure of 1.2 million used by aid agencies, the United Nations refugee agency said on Tuesday.    

"The figure they are using is 2.5 million. If anything, they believe it could be more, this is a very conservative estimate," Melissa Fleming, chief spokeswoman of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told a news briefing in Geneva.       

In the northern province of Al Raqqa, the city’s governor was injured in an explosion which killed an officer and a woman, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

In a statement, the Observatory said that the blast rocked the city early in the morning, targeting the patrol of Al Raqqa’s governor who sustained serious injuries, along with his bodyguards.        


REUTERS/LBCI

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