Qatar urges Syrian opposition head to reconsider resignation

The head of the Syrian National Coalition Moaz Alkhatib resigned on Sunday, saying in a statement he had taken the step so he could work with more freedom.
                            
"I had promised the great Syrian people and promised God that I would resign if matters reached some red lines," he said in a statement posted on his official Facebook page. He did not explain what had prompted his resignation.                                                                   

"Now I am fulfilling my promise and announcing my resignation from the National Coalition in order to be able to work with freedom that cannot be available within the official institutions," he said.                                                    

A spokesman for Alkhatib confirmed his resignation.                     

Following his resignation, The Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani said he regretted the resignation of the head of the main Syrian opposition coalition, Moaz al-Khatib, and urged him to reconsider his decision.               

Alkhatib, who headed the Syrian National Coalition (SNC) resigned on Sunday, in a blow to a diminishing moderate wing of the two-year uprising against President Bashar al-Assad's rule.                       

"We are very sorry for this, and I hope he reviews his resignation," Sheikh Hamad, who is also the prime minister of Qatar, a main supporter of the rebels, told reporters in Doha. Arab foreign ministers were meeting to prepare for an Arab summit in the city on Tuesday and Wednesday.                    

"I think this is a very important moment for the Syrians, especially while almost everyone agreed to give the seat of the Syrian state to the opposition. So we hope things will get corrected. We feel it's important for him not to lose this moment," he added.            

Shortly after his resignation, the Free Syrian Army announced that they do not recognize Ghassan Hitto as provisional Prime Minister of Syrian Opposition National Coalition.               

This as, Israel said it fired into Syria and destroyed a machinegun position in the Golan Heights from where shots had been fired at Israeli soldiers in a further spillover of the Syrian civil war along a tense front.                                             

It was not immediately clear whether Israel held Syrian troops or rebels responsible for what a spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said had been a deliberate attack on Israeli patrols in the occupied territory.                                            

Israeli forces "destroyed a Syrian machine gun nest that fired twice in the last 24 hours on Israeli patrols operating to safeguard the border," the spokesman, Ofir Gendelman, said on his Twitter page.                                          

Shells have fallen several times inside Israeli-controlled territory during Syria's civil war. Some of the incidents have drawn Israeli return fire.      
                                                 
Syria's southern provinces bordering Jordan and Israel have become an increasingly significant battleground as the capital Damascus - in Syria's south - comes into play and President Bashar al-Assad's forces fight hard to prevent rebel advances.                                                  

After a second incident on Sunday, Israeli soldiers "responded with accurate fire toward the Syrian post from which they were fired on", the military said.  
                                              
Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said in a statement that Israel viewed shooting from Syria "with severity" and would not allow "the Syrian army or any other element to violate Israeli sovereignty by firing at our territory".                                         

Israel has said for months that it expects Assad's government to fall and has voiced concern that its chemical weapons could fall into the hands of Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrillas and al Qaeda.                                     

Israeli President Shimon Peres has called for Assad to step down.    


REUTERS/LBCI