The Washington Times, Doha, 11 Nov 2012 — Syria‘s opposition agreed Sunday to unite against Syrian President Bashar Assad and elected a cleric as its first leader after four days of marathon talks in Qatar.
The Syrian National Council finally signed up to a wider, more representative bloc centered on a government-in-waiting, as demanded by Arab and Western states.
Muslim cleric Ahmed al-Khatib, 52, a moderate originally from Damascus who fled Syria three months ago, was elected to head the newly formed opposition group.
Leaders of the Syrian National Council prompted repeated delays over their concerns they would be sidelined in a broader opposition coalition.
After negotiations ran into the early hours of Sunday and resumed in the afternoon, the opposition factions agreed to form a “National Coalition of Forces of the Syrian Revolution and Opposition.”