'Fail once, twice, ...try
again!'
"....The State Department has been heavily involved in crafting the new council as part of its effort oust Syrian
President Bashar
al-Assad and build a
more viable and unified opposition. In September, for instance, Secretary of
State Hillary
Clinton met with a
group of Syrian activists who were flown in to New York for a high-level meeting
that has not been reported until now....
Many in the SNC are
accordingly frustrated with the level of support they've gotten in Washington.
"The Obama administration is trying to
systematically undermine the SNC. It's very unfortunate," one SNC
leader said told The
Cable.
But U.S. officials are equally frustrated with an SNC they say has
failed to attract broad support, particularly from the Alawite and Kurdish
minorities. The new council is an attempt to change that dynamic. Dozens of
Syrian leaders will meet in the Qatari capital, Doha, on Nov. 3 and hope to
announce the new council as the legitimate representative... The SNC will have
a minority stake in the new body, but some opposition leaders are still
skeptical that the effort will succeed....... the exact
structure of the council will be determined in Qatar, not
before.
"We
need to be clear: This is what the Americans support, and if you
want to work with us you are going to work with this plan....!"
The Turkish
government has been wary of the new effort because it has been heavily invested
in the SNC, and the new council intentionally puts the SNC in a minority
position...... the administration believes the Turks will ultimately come around
to embrace the new body......
Other Syrian
activists warn that the new council is far from a sure thing.
One external
opposition activist with ties to military leaders inside Syria told The
Cable there's a
risk the Doha meeting could be only the latest example of the
opposition's failure to coalesce around a
common vision and plan for a post-Assad Syria......
"There's a
rising presence of Islamist extremists. So we need to help these [military
council leaders], the majority of them are secular, relatively moderate, and
not pursuing an
overly vicious agenda (like slitting throats
after washing hands?) " the official
said. ..."
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