– Free Syrian Army failed, let’s find another opposition group in Syria – meeting to be held in Morocco !

Countries opposed to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime meet today in Morocco for further plans on Syria’s 21-month conflict after the US gave official backing to a new opposition bloc. Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu attends among the meeting, while US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton canceled her visit to Morocco due to health reasons.

Morocco / NationalTurk – The Friends (with benefits) of Syria group meeting of Arab and Western states coincides with battlefield gains by Islamist terrorist rebels suspected of Al-Qaeda links, and a rapidly deteriorating refugee situation as winter sets in Syria.

Syria talks in Morocco are focused on two key issues, namely the political transition after Bashar Assad’s eventual fall and mobilising humanitarian aid to a wrecked country. Spoils of Syrian war must be divided among the sides who initiated it, and the real victims of Syrian civil war will be given bread, clean water or may be even a handful of rice !

Syrian Civil war death toll rises to 50000 !

Syrian civil war’s death toll  is now topping 42,000, according to observers, the United Nations refugee agency estiamte the number of Syrian refugees who had fled to neighbouring countries of Turkey and Jordan and farther to North Africa had now passed half a million.

Al-Qaeda linked Free Syrian Army replaced by National Coalition

But in a major boost for the newly formed opposition National Coalition, US President Barack Obama endorsed the newly formed group as ‘ the legitimate representative’ of the Syrian people. Sadly this new militant group does not even consist of Syrian people!

“We have 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,” Obama said on the eve of the Morocco meeting.

Russia, the Bashar al Assad regime’s most powerful ally, expressed surprise at the move, with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stating the United States of America has decided to place all its bets on an armed victory of the National Coalition”.

Under pressure to unite, the Syrian opposition agreed in Doha on November 11 to establish the National Coalition and group the various rebel forces under a supreme military council.

But islamist jihadist rebels in Aleppo, a key front line in northern Syria, rejected the coalition, expressing their dream of an Islamic state.

Terrorists, jihadists militants roam freely in Syria !

Among them was the Al-Nusra Front, which the United States blacklisted on Tuesday as a “terrorist” organisation.

Obama’s recognition follows a similar move by the European Union on Monday, after EU foreign ministers met the coalition’s leader, Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib.

Earlier, Western diplomats and coalition members had expressed confidence the opposition group would consolidate its international backing as a viable alternative to Assad’s beleaguered regime.

“It is our goal that, after the European Union, now the 130 states in the Friends of Syria group will send a message of recognition to the National Coalition of the Syrian opposition,” said German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle.

Al-Qaeda concerns

Despite the growing recognition, several EU member states have expressed reservations about the group, in terms of how representative it is and its democratic commitment.

Reflecting another potential threat to the coalition’s credibility was the US decision to blacklist the Al-Nusra Front, which it accuses of hijacking the Syrian uprising.

Obama on Tuesday repeated State Department claims that Al-Nusra, while portraying itself as part of the legitimate opposition, was in fact a front for Al-Qaeda in Iraq.

A spokesman for the National Coalition insisted, however, that there were “inaccuracies” around Al-Nusra.

Yaser Tabbara said the extremist group could be divided into two factions — one that supported the regime and committed acts of terror, and the other that did not — and urged dialogue with the latter.

“They’re not going to be a stumbling block in the recognition of the coalition,” he told AFP.

Tabbara also underlined hopes the Marrakesh meeting would help alleviate Syria’s mounting humanitarian crisis and support the financial needs of “liberated” areas, in terms of salaries and services, which the group estimates at nearly $500 million per month.

Germany streesed late Tuesday it would provide another 22 million euros ($29 million) in humanitarian aid for Syria victims and refugees of the Syrian conflict, bringing its total contribution to 90 million euros.

Westerwelle says the funds would go in particular to the Red Cross, the World Food Program and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

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