Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime will not
stay in power for much longer, Nabil el-Araby, the head of the Arab
League, has said, urging the opposition meeting in the Gulf state
of Qatar to put aside their differences.
"It is important to unify the opposition's visions, especially
because everyone knows that the regime in Syria will not remain for long
and one day there will be a new situation in Syria," he told reporters
in Cairo on Wednesday.
El-Araby's comments came as the Syrian National Council's (SNC)
general assembly of nearly 420 members meeting in the Qatari capital
Doha moved to choose two leadership bodies and a president.
Attempts
at new leadership have followed intense international pressure from
critics who say the exile-dominated group needs to be overhauled as
it does not represent the Syrian opposition on the ground.
Al Jazeera's Omar al-Saleh, reporting from the conference in Doha,
said: "The electing process is ongoing. By Thursday morning there will
be a new leadership, but the problems will remain huge as the SNC are
seen to be weak."
Western pressure
The meeting took place as Western efforts to help rebels oust Assad
have shifted dramatically, with Britain saying it will deal directly
with rebel military leaders and Turkey saying NATO members have
discussed protecting a safe zone inside Syria with Patriot missiles.
Britain announced it would begin direct talks with military figures
in Syria's armed opposition groups, as Prime Minister David Cameron
called for a new international approach to ending the conflict.
In a statement to parliament, William Hague, the foreign
secretary, said Britain still would not supply weapons to the rebels and
said officials would stress to the opposition groups the importance of
respecting human rights.
Cameron himself toured a desert refugee camp for Syrians in northern Jordan on Wednesday.
"I am hearing appalling stories about what has happened inside Syria
so one of the first things I want to talk to [US President] Barack
[Obama] about is how we must do more to try and solve this crisis," he
said.
In Ankara, a Turkish foreign ministry spokesman said Turkey was in
talks with NATO about the possible deployment of Patriots, primarily
used as anti-ballistic missiles, but Recep Tayyip Erdogan,Turkey's prime
minister, said no request had yet been made.
Turkey has beefed up border security with tanks and anti-missile
batteries in the face of the deadly conflict across the border, which
has spilled over into each of Syria's neighbours.
Sectarian violence
Meanwhile, Syrian rebels shelled a key area of Damascus that is home
to many members of Assad's Alawite minority, embassies and government
buildings, as they stepped up attacks on his power base on Wednesday.
Sectarian divides are a key factor in Syria's armed rebellion, with
many in the Sunni Muslim majority frustrated at more than 40 years of
Alawite-dominated rule.
State news agency SANA reported that shells had hit a home and
mini-bus carrying passengers in Mazzeh 86, which lies beneath Assad's
hilltop presidential palace, killing at least three civilians.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London-based watchdog that
relies on a network of activists and medics on the ground, confirmed
the shelling and said at least three civilians were killed and 12
wounded.
It previously reported a car bombing in an Alawite area of the suburb
of Qudsaya on Tuesday that killed 19 people and another on Monday in
Mazzeh that left 13 dead.
Fighting raged and air strikes were reported in other parts of the
country, while SANA reported that a judge was killed when a car bomb
exploded outside his home in the northeast of Damascus.
In the town of Nabak near Damascus, a suicide bomber drove a van
loaded with explosives into an army position, killing six soldiers, the
Observatory said, adding that at least 100 people had been killed across
Syria on Wednesday.
It said more than 37,000 people had now died since the uprising
against Assad's regime erupted in March 2011, first as a protest
movement and then an armed rebellion after repression. |