SALON

Wednesday, Dec 12, 2012 5:40 PM UTC

Over 100 nations, including U.S., recognize Syrian opposition

UPDATED: NY Times reports that the regime has fired SCUD missiles at rebels

By

Topics: Syria, Friends of Syria, Bashar al-Assad, Civil War, Opposition coalition, Middle East, Al-Qaida,

Over 100 nations, including U.S., recognize Syrian oppositionFree Syrian Army fighters take their positions, close to a military base, near Azaz, Syria, (AP Photo/Manu Brabo)

UPDATE 12:24 p.m. (EST): The New York Times reports that forces loyal to Syria’s embattled leader Bashar al-Assad have fired Scud missiles at rebel forces in northern Syria. The attack, according to a senior Obama administration official:

Shows, he said, the increasing desperation of Mr. Assad, since Scuds are primarily defensive weapons, being used by the government offensively against a counterinsurgency.

“Using Scuds to target tanks or military bases is one thing,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Using them to target rebels hiding in playgrounds at schools is something else.”

On Tuesday anti-government activists in Damascus said “Regime forces are firing land missiles that are capable of carrying chemical warheads.” This is significant because Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said that Syria’s use of chemical weapons in a civil war would violate a “red line.”

- – - – - – - – - -

More than 100 countries on Wednesday formally recognized the Syrian opposition coalition. “Friends of Syria,” a group composed of representatives from Western and Arab nations that support the 20-month uprising against Bashar al-Assad, convened in Morocco to formalize international recognition of the National Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces as the sole legitimate political representative of the Syrian people.

On Tuesday, the U.S. delivered a further blow to the Assad regime’s frail legitimacy. In an interview with ABC News, President Obama said that the U.S. will formally recognize the coalition as the de facto leadership of rebel-controlled areas in Syria.

“We’ve made a decision that the Syrian Opposition Coalition is now inclusive enough, is reflective and representative enough of the Syrian population, that we consider them the legitimate representative of the Syrian people in opposition to the Assad regime,” Obama said. Britain, France, Turkey and others have already recognized the legitimacy of the rebel coalition.

Reuters obtained a draft declaration from the “Friends of Syria,” which noted, “Participants acknowledge the National Coalition as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people and the umbrella organization under which the Syrian opposition are gathering … Bashar al-Assad has lost legitimacy and should stand aside to allow a sustainable political transition.”

The text also reiterated that were Assad to use chemical weapons against the Syrian people, this would be a red line crossed for the international community.

Obama did not say during his interview whether the U.S. would now be prepared to arm the rebels or offer other military support. Following reports last week that U.S.-authorized weapons sent to rebels in Libya ended up in the hands of Islamist militants, the Obama administration is treading carefully around the issue of arming or militarily assisting Syrian rebels.

Washington is also taking pains to distinguish between which rebel groups it recognizes as legitimate and which it does not. The State Department has declared one resistance group a terrorist organization. “The State Department said the al-Nusra Front for the People of the Levant, which is taking part in the fight on the ground against president Bashar al-Assad, is an alias for al-Qaida in Iraq (AQI),” reported the Guardian.

Meanwhile, to cement its legitimacy, the Western-backed coalition will announce Wednesday plans to move hundreds of millions of dollars worth of humanitarian aid to Syria’s most beleaguered regions. Two million people are believed to have been displaced inside Syria because of the civil war.

Continue Reading Close

More Natasha Lennard and Salon Staff.

Next Article

Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

What To Read Awards: Top 10 Books of 2012 slide show

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 10
  • 10. "The Guardians" by Sarah Manguso: "Though Sarah Manguso’s 'The Guardians' is specifically about losing a dear friend to suicide, she pries open her intelligent heart to describe our strange, sad modern lives. I think about the small resonating moments of Manguso’s narrative every day." -- M. Rebekah Otto, The Rumpus

  • 9. "Beautiful Ruins" by Jess Walter: "'Beautiful Ruins' leads my list because it's set on the coast of Italy in 1962 and Richard Burton makes an entirely convincing cameo appearance. What more could you want?" -- Maureen Corrigan, NPR's "Fresh Air"

  • 8. "Arcadia" by Lauren Groff: "'Arcadia' captures our painful nostalgia for an idyllic past we never really had." -- Ron Charles, Washington Post

  • 7. "Gone Girl" by Gillian Flynn: "When a young wife disappears on the morning of her fifth wedding anniversary, her husband becomes the automatic suspect in this compulsively readable thriller, which is as rich with sardonic humor and social satire as it is unexpected plot twists." -- Marjorie Kehe, Christian Science Monitor

  • 6. "How Should a Person Be" by Sheila Heti: "There was a reason this book was so talked about, and it’s because Heti has tapped into something great." -- Jason Diamond, Vol. 1 Brooklyn

  • 4. TIE "NW" by Zadie Smith and "Far From the Tree" by Andrew Solomon: "Zadie Smith’s 'NW' is going to enter the canon for the sheer audacity of the book’s project." -- Roxane Gay, New York Times "'Far From the Tree' by Andrew Solomon is, to my mind, a life-changing book, one that's capable of overturning long-standing ideas of identity, family and love." -- Laura Miller, Salon

  • 3. "Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk" by Ben Fountain: "'Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk' says a lot about where we are today," says Marjorie Kehe of the Christian Science Monitor. "Pretty much the whole point of that novel," adds Time's Lev Grossman.

  • 2. "Bring Up the Bodies" by Hilary Mantel: "Even more accomplished than the preceding novel in this sequence, 'Wolf Hall,' Mantel's new installment in the fictionalized life of Thomas Cromwell -- master secretary and chief fixer to Henry VIII -- is a high-wire act, a feat of novelistic derring-do." -- Laura Miller, Salon

  • 1. "Behind the Beautiful Forevers" by Katherine Boo: "Like the most remarkable literary nonfiction, it reads with the bite of a novel and opens up a corner of the world that most of us know absolutely nothing about. It stuck with me all year." -- Eric Banks, president of the National Book Critics Circle

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 10

Related Videos

More Related Stories

Comments

 0 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username ( profile | log out )

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

From Around the Web

Recommendations