Syrian opposition leaders fail to form government

ISTANBUL/BEIRUT: Syrian opposition leaders said yesterday they had failed to put together a transitional government to run figher-held areas of the country, a blow to the exiled group trying to present an alternative to Bashar Assad’s rule.
Political efforts to resolve the conflict have largely faltered because of fighters’ failure to form a unified front and because world powers are backing opposing sides.
Talks held by representatives of the opposition Syrian National Coalition (SNC), a 70-member umbrella group in Istanbul at the weekend only highlighted divisions in the coalition.
“This is a big blow for the revolution against Bashar Assad,” said one opposition leader who attended the meeting but did not want to be named because he operates in secret in Syria.
Sources at the negotiations in Turkey said SNC President Moaz Alkhatib had flown to Qatar while the meeting was still in progress to ask for financial aid for a transitional government.
The SNC said in a statement a five-member committee would offer proposals for forming a government within 10 days.
However, the only name put forward at the meeting as a possible transitional prime minister was Riad Hijab, a former Syrian premier.
Veteran opposition campaigner Kamal Labwani, said Hijab — the highest ranking member of Assad’s inner circle to defect since the revolt erupted in March 2011 — would be an efficient cabinet chief despite his past in the Assad administration.
“Hijab should be given a chance. After two years of trying it is someone else’s turn,” Labwani said.
More than 60,000 people have been killed in Syria’s increasingly bloody 22-month civil war, at least 600,000 have become refugees and 2.5 million are suffering from hunger.