By Hamza Jilani/Staff Reporter
Representatives of the Syrian National Coalition yesterday announced their determination to provide a stable transitional government that will lead Syria smoothly into a free post-Assad era.
The decision was finalised by the opposition factions at the Ritz Carlton Doha at the first official meeting of their general assembly.
“Syria will be safe after Assad falls and we are not waiting for that to happen in order to take things forward. It’s only a matter of time,” said Riad Hijab, the former Syrian prime minister and now the highest-ranking dissident.
On the sidelines of the Doha conference of Free National Gathering, a group that brings together government defectors, opposition figures, Gulf Times spoke to coalition member Dr Issam Hafiz who assured that “the transitional government is both comprehensive and harmonised after talks”.
“Today’s talks were a step forward and very successful. The transitional government has been formed with the people’s interests and choices. It is made up of representatives of people and will include all factions of Syria in the government,” he said, adding that the coalition government insisted on Syria’s sovereignty.
“We will not allow foreign influence to meddle in the new Syria. That’s one of our foundations,” he said. “The revolution is the people’s revolution with the vision of a free Syria and that is what we are working for, on every level.”
The Doha meeting will be followed by a conference in Turkey next week.
Hijab called on all countries, particularly permanent members of the UN Security Council, to assume their responsibilities towards the protection of the Syrian people and their choices, Qatar News Agency (QNA) adds.
Addressing the Doha conference, Hijab said he would not accept in this regard pretexts such as fear of Syria, after liberation, falling in the grip of extremism or sliding towards civil war.
Hijab stressed that the steadfast Syrian people were determined to get rid of “the hysteria of criminality”, adding that they would not be frustrated by the unjust war machine which the regime used to suppress them.
He noted that the Syrian Free Army took up arms to defend the Syrians’ lives, dignity, honour and glory.
“We in the National Free Alliance stand with the Syrian Free Army in the same trench and call for its support with money, weapons and media to defend the Syrian citizens”, Hijab said, stressing that the support of the Free Army was the only way to change reality and get out of the situation which “the killer brought us to”.
He expressed deep gratitude and thanks to Qatar for sponsoring and hosting the conference and for its support and assistance to the Syrian people “in the face of one of the worst tyrants throughout history”.
The opening session of the conference, which is the first after the founding conference held in the Jordanian capital, Amman, was attended by HE the Assistant Foreign Minister for Services Affairs Rashid bin Khalifa bin Mohamed al-Khalifa.
In his speech, Hijab said victory in Syria was definitely coming.
Conference participants observed a minute of silence at the beginning of the opening session in memory of the Syrian revolution’s martyrs.
At the close of the opening session, Hijab called on other countries to follow the example of Qatar in supporting the Syrian revolution and to hand over embassies of the Syrian regime to the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces.
About 70 participants, including former officials, ministers, ambassadors, judges and media men who previously served with the Syrian regime, are taking part in the conference.
