Sabra Stresses Importance of Doha Meeting in Uniting Syrian Opposition

Doha , November 05 (QNA) - The meeting currently held in Doha between different Syrian opposition groups and figures will play a huge role in uniting them under the same vision and goals in their plight to bring down Al Asad regime, Official Spokesman of the Syrian National Council (SNC) Goerge Sabra said Monday. Speaking exclusively to Qatar News Agency on the sidelines of the meeting, he said that the council was holding its general assembly meeting here in Qatar from November 4-7 supported by HH the Emir, the Qatari government and the Qatari people. He said that the meeting will review the last year of the council's activities and the last 20 months of the Syrian revolution, in order to come up with new objectives that could help them topple down Bashar Al Assad's regime. He said that the SNC has been working relentlessly on becoming more representative of the Syria opposition. The meetings include 400 people, 150 of them have joined the council recently. He revealed that the SNC will invite a number of political figures over the next few days and hold political workshops in order to study the paths available for the council to take in order to move the revolution forward. He said that the council's final statement will reveal its work plan for the upcoming period. Asked on how the current meeting is different from previous ones, Sabra's reply was that it was fundamentally different. He said that what set this meeting apart was that around a third meeting's members were part of the protest movement inside Syria, with around 15% of them women. The SNC's spokesman expressed his hope that the new council elections will yield a new general secretariat, executive bureau and a new chairman that will reflect the change which took place and help push the revolution forward. On the possibility of establishing a new revolutionary initiative that could replace the SNC, Sabra stressed that it would be a mistake that will lead to failure. He stressed that the Syrian people have already chosen the council as their representative. The US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had said earlier this week that the US administration no longer viewed the SNC as the "visible leader" of the Syrian opposition. With reports saying that the US and France were now supporting the Syrian National Initiative Council, made by former Syrian Member of Parliament Riad Seif. The initiative was looking to become an umbrella group that included rebel fighters, and other minority groups like Kurds , Christians and Alawites with the aim of bringing down the Assad regime. On the different initiatives made by the Syrian opposition, Sabra said that there were a number of them at the moment, noting that the SNC would participate only if they were discussing finding means to aid the Syrian people and arm the free Syrian army. He said that setting goals that did not "directly benefit the revolution" was a waste of time and would have detrimental effect on the Syrian revolution. (QNA)