One Third Of Syrian National Coalition's Members Resign

One third of the Syrian National Coalition (SNC) -- the western-backed umbrella Syrian opposition group --  have resigned in protest against the coalition's participation in an upcoming UN-backed peace conference next month in Montreux.



Ziad Hassan, head of a Turkmen group whose members have also quit the council, told Anadolu Agency that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad should step down before the so-called "Geneva II", rejecting the process as an attempt to legitimize the Syrian regime.



The "Geneva I" accord, reached in June 2012, stipulated the formation of a transitional government that included the opposition and the members of the current Syrian government. The US rules out any role for Assad in a transitional government, a position Russia and China oppose.  



"We always supported the peace negotiations like in Geneva I. But none of the commitments of Geneva I has been implemented by the regime so far," he said.



Hassan referred to a letter sent by SNC's leader Ahmed Al Jarba to the UN, declaring the coalition's readiness to compromise with the Assad regime, saying that the 40 people who resigned from the coalition did not support the contents of the letter.



The businesspeople and armed opposition groups also left the coalition because they do not think it represents them any more, Hassan said.



"They are not very optimistic about the coalition, and even the armed groups have also declared they do not recognize the coalition as their legal representative any more, besides the businesspeople do no see the democratization of Syria in the coalition," he stressed.



"The decision to negotiate with the regime is taken without voting, which is against the internal regulations of the coalition," he said.



He stated that they demanded the Syrian National Coalition to "reflect the inner voice of Syria and communicate with domestic dynamics" But after the latest enlargement of the coalition, we observed that this understanding has weakened."



The Syrian National Coalition is a coalition of opposition groups in the Syrian civil war that was founded in Doha, Qatar, in November 2012.



The coalition elected Ahmed Al-Jarba for a second term as president and Badr Jamous as secretary general during a meeting over the weekend in Istanbul. 



The coalition has a council of 121 seats, including 15 seats for the members of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), allowing direct representation of rebels from Syria in a political group for the first time, though not all of them are filled.



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