Doha's guests are 'confused'

FLC

[Telegraph] "... Key opposition factions with strong followings inside the country pulled out of the plan, which was due to be presented at a conference in Doha, Qatar, today.

Three of the dissident bodies seen as integral to the US-backed initiative said yesterday that they had refused to attend, diplomats and opposition figures told The Daily Telegraph.

"There are too many people against this initiative for it to work now," said a Western diplomatic source in Doha.

The setback came as Turkey said it was in talks to deploy Nato-controlled Patriot missiles on its border with Syria to ward off the regime's cross-border threat.

Ahmet Davutoglu, the Turkish foreign minister, said Nato had a responsibility to protect all member states from external attack, including Turkey.

Riad Seif, the Syria dissident who had championed the movement and was set to emerge as one of the new leaders, withdrew after he lost his seat in the executive council of the main opposition, the Syrian National Council (SNC).

Furious at being publicly side-lined by the conference, the SNC voted against the proposal at its separate convention.

Representatives from the National Coordinating Committee, the Syrian democratic platform, and the Kurdish ethnic minority had rejected the plan.

The plan's failure is a blow to Hillary Clinton, .... The proposal, which was widely known as the "Seif-Ford" initiative, after Robert Ford, the US special envoy to Syria and Mr Seif, has lost ground amid resentment at foreign efforts to impose a solution on Syrians. (Laugh HARD!)

"Everyone feels that this initiative is imposed. ....

The opposition meeting will go ahead, but any leadership body is likely to have a majority from the SNC, which has little influence on the ground. "It may secure more funding but [the conflict] is about winning the support of the street to regain control. And the street does not support them," said a diplomatic source..."