The Syrian opposition coalition
recognized by the Arab League as the sole representative for Syria
opened on Wednesday its first embassy in the Qatari capital Doha.
In
the presence of Arab and Western ambassadors, the president of Syria's
opposition coalition, Moaz Alkhatib and Qatari Khalid al-Atiyah, state
minister for foreign affairs, cut the ribbon at the entrance to the
embassy.
The national anthems of Qatar and Syria played as Qatari
and Syrian opposition figures stood underneath the Syrian opposition's
flag framed in red, green, white and black balloons.
Earlier,
Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad appealed to the leaders of a
five-nation economic forum to intervene to stop the violence in Syria
and encourage dialogue in his country.
President Assad said Syria is being subjected to "acts of terrorism backed by Arab, regional and Western nations."
His
remarks came in a letter sent to the BRICS forum of emerging market
powers which was published by Syria's state media on Tuesday.
Assad
said in his letter that “the Syrian people are looking forward to
working with BRICS countries as moderate powers seeking to spread peace,
security and cooperation between the states away from hegemony and
dictatorships.”
On another note, President Assad met with a committee tasked with
finding a political solution for the countries ongoing
conflict.
In this context, the committee was formed following Assad’s calls for dialogue with unarmed members of the oppositions.
SANA news agency reported that President Assad listened during
Wednesday’s meeting to the committee recent works and urged its members
to exert more efforts and focus on 4 main Syrian areas in the coming
stage.
Assad said that the committee should work by holding consultative
sessions and by inviting several representatives of the Syrian people
for talks, adding that it should stress on managing dialogue between
factions of the Syrian society.
His appeal came a day after Syria's opposition
took over the country's seat for the first time at the Arab summit held
in Doha Tuesday.
The opposition's ascension to representing the
country at the summit in Qatar, a main backer of rebels fighting to
topple Assad, showed the extent of the regime's isolation.
At the
summit, Syrian opposition leader Moaz Alkhatib said that NATO's rebuff
of his call for Patriot missile support for rebel-held areas in the
north sent a message to the government of President Bashar al-Assad to
"do what you want".
He said in an interview with Reuters that he
would not rescind his resignation as leader of the main Syrian
opposition coalition but would continue to perform leadership duties for
the time being.
This as, Former U.N.-Arab League envoy to Syria
Kofi Annan said it was too late for military intervention there and that
arming President Bashar al-Assad's foes will not end the two-year-old
crisis.
Annan, who resigned in August blaming "finger-pointing" at
the United Nations Security Council for the impasse in his mediation,
called for a political solution based on an agreement reached by world
powers in Geneva in June.
"I don't see a military intervention in
Syria. We left it too late. I'm not sure it would not do more harm," he
told the Graduate Institute in Geneva on Tuesday night.
"Further
militarization of the conflict, I'm not sure that is the way to help the
Syrian people. They are waiting for the killing to stop. You find some
people far away from Syria are the ones very keen for putting in
weapons."
"My own view is that as late as it is we have to find a way of pouring water on the fire rather than the other way around."
France and Britain have urged the European Union to ease an EU arms embargo on Syria so that rebels can get more weapons.
Annan's
successor, Lakhdar Brahimi, has pursued the Geneva plan, but has failed
to bridge gaps between the United States and Russia, which resists
Western demands for Assad's removal.
The agreement by foreign
ministers of the Security Council's five permanent members called for a
transitional government in Syria, but left open what part Assad might
play.
"Once you talk of a transitional government with full
executive authority, it means the existing government is on its way out
and you are going to work to make a change. But they didn't do that.
They left Geneva and started fighting again," Annan said of the divided
world powers.
The United Nations says about 70,000 people have been killed in Syria, a figure Annan called "a gross under-estimation".
Positions:
The
Syrian Government said on Wednesday that the Arab League's positions
violate the country's internal sovereignty and lead to more violence,
noting that Doha's summit has encouraged violent practices, which poses a
threat to the whole world.
On another note, the Iranian Foreign
Minister Ali Akbar Salehi stressed that giving Syria's seat to the
interim government formed by the opposition is "a dangerous and
unprecedented step" for the Arab League, adding that such mistakes only
lead to further deterioration.
Russia also criticized the Arab
League on Wednesday for giving a seat formerly held by the Syrian
government to a representative of the Syrian opposition at a summit in
Doha.
"In Doha, another anti-Syria step was taken: a delegation of
the Syrian National Coalition was invited and given the right to take
the seat of official representatives of Syria in the meeting room," the
Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Similarly, BRICS leaders voiced their 'deep concern' in regards to the dire security situation in Syria.
For
his part, the provisional Prime Minister of Syrian Opposition National
Coalition Ghassan Hitto stressed that he will form a government within
three weeks, and said that it will include 10 to 12 Ministers.
On the Field:
Warplanes
raided the northern area of Damascus, noting that gunmen captured three
buildings of the Syrian Army in the vicinity of the demilitarized zone
in the Golan Heights, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human
Rights.
In parallel, Sana News Agency reported that "terrorist
groups affiliated to al-Nusra Front" were targeted in Latakia, claiming
the lives of many insurgents.
Meanwhile, Turkish military police
fired on Wednesday teargas at Syrian refugees protesting against living
conditions in their camp on Wednesday, wounding many, residents of the
camp said.
Residents of the Suleiman Shah camp in Akcakale, a
Turkish town near the Syrian border, said young men started a large
demonstration after a faulty electrical supply outlet set fire to a tent
earlier that day.
Three brothers aged 7, 18 and 19 were injured
in the tent fire, Turkish officials said. Camp residents said one of the
brothers had died.