Doha-Opposition:
Syria's fractious opposition, under pressure from the United States and Qatar to unite, looked likely on Friday to agree to form an inclusive new opposition body that would serve as a unity government if Bashar al-Assad falls.
Qatar, which has bankrolled the opposition to Assad and played a leading role in Arab diplomacy against him, is hosting an opposition meeting, with senior U.S. diplomats hovering on the sidelines, prodding the opposition to make a deal.
Rebel advances on the ground and increasing economic and social disintegration within Syria have added to the pressure on the opposition to form a body that can rule after Assad.
A source inside meetings that lasted into the early hours of Friday morning said members of the Syrian National Council (SNC), a group made up mainly of exiled politicians, had shifted views and were coming to accept the need to form a wider body.
"We will not leave today without an agreement," the source said. "The body will be the sole legitimate representative of the Syrian people. Once they get international recognition, there will be a fund for military support."
The new body would mirror the Transitional National Council that united the opposition to Muammar Gaddafi in Libya last year and then took power after he was ousted, the source suggested.
"They will create a 'temporary government', which could take control of embassies around the world and take Syria's seat at the U.N., because the regime would have lost its legitimacy."
An outline agreement could see the SNC and other opposition figures agree on a 60-member political assembly, or congress, as well as a military and a judicial council.
The SNC, which has previously been the main opposition group on the international stage, may have around a third of the seats in the new body but would otherwise lose much of its influence.
Though it was not yet clear whether the groups meeting in Doha will name members to the new body or broach the thorny issue of its leadership, its creation would mark an advance long sought by the United States and Qatar.
Assad Interview-RT:
Syrian President Bachar al-Assad said on Friday that whether he
stays in presidency or not is a matter that only "ballot boxes" may
determine.
Speaking to Russia Today Assad said that the presidential issue is related to
the citizens regardless of the opinions of others.
Assad criticized the Turkish PM Recep
Tayyip Erdogan saying that he considers himself as the "new Ottoman
Sultan" or an "Ottoman Khalifa" who is capable of controlling the region
as if it were the Ottoman Empire.
He also considered that Erdogan's cabinet is supporting the Syrian opposition and calling for toppling his regime.
A Turkish foreign ministry official reported Friday that about 8,000 refugees fleeing violence in Syria crossed into Turkey in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of refugees in Turkey to around 120,000.
In turn, the United Nations refugee agency said on Friday that about 11,000 Syrian refugees have fled to three neighbouring countries in the past 24 hours, the largest exodus in "quite some time".
The latest exodus into Turkey (9,000), Lebanon (1,000) and Jordan (1,000) brings to 408,000 the total number of Syrian refugees registered or being assisted in the region, Panos Moumtzis of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said.
"It just indicates a significant crisis, the continuation of the conflict," Moumtzis told a news briefing in Geneva after aid agencies held a Syria Humanitarian Forum. "In Turkey, we know from most refugees that they come from Aleppo or Idlib or northern areas. That has been the trend so far."
State-run Anatolian news agency also reported on Friday that 26 Syrian officers had defected from the Syrian military to Turkey overnight.
In this context, the UN Commissioner
for Human Rights Navi Pillay expressed on Friday her concern seemingly since the International Committee of the Red Cross [ICRC] said on Thursday it
could not keep pace with the growing needs of civilians caught up in Syria's
worsening civil war.
On the field:
At least 20 members of the Syrian security forces were killed and several wounded when fighters from rebel battalions attacked the headquarters of a military security building in northern Syria, a watchdog said.
The attack happened in Ras al-Ain, an Arab and Kurd town in the northeastern province of Hasaka, the opposition-linked Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, quoting witnesses and a doctor. Rebels overran the frontier town late on Thursday.
"The fate of more than 25 policemen remains unknown," the statement said.
This as at 12 people were killed by
shelling in the eastern Syrian town of al-Qurriya on Friday, the Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights said, blaming the government for an attack which
the authorities denied carrying out.
A headline bar on Syrian state TV
quoted an official source denying reports of "bombardment of the city of
al-Qurriya", which is situated in the eastern province of Deir al-Zor.
But Rami Abdelrahman, head of the
observatory, told Reuters that government forces had been shelling al-Qurriya
from the outskirts of Al-Mayadin, some 10 km (6 miles) to the northwest.
The position was the scene of
fighting between government and rebel forces, he said.
LBCI/REUTERS