Syrian Dissidents Task Maleh to Form Govt. in Exile, SNC Slams 'Hasty' Move
The opposition Syrian National Council said on Tuesday that it is too early to form a government in exile and that a leading dissident's announcement that he had been tasked with forming one was damaging.
"The formation of a government in exile was a hasty decision, and we wish it had not happened," SNC chief Abdel Basset Sayda told Agence France Presse. "It actually weakens the opposition."
Syrian opposition figure Haytham al-Maleh told reporters earlier that he had been tasked with forming a government in exile based in Cairo.
Maleh, 81, is a lawyer and human rights activist who spent several years in prison in Syria.
"We don't want to find ourselves in a political or administrative vacuum" should President Bashar Assad fall, Maleh said. "This phase calls for cooperation from all sides."
The SNC's Sayda said on Saturday that he would discuss with rebel groups in Syria the creation of a transitional government, led by a figure involved in the uprising from the start.
"We need to take our time to form a transitional government," Sayda told AFP on Tuesday. Such a government, he said, "should reflect the situation on the ground and the diversity" of Syria's population.
Sayda added that the SNC has established two committees tasked with consulting with the rebel Free Syrian Army, as well as other opposition groups both within and outside the embattled country, with the aim of forming a transitional government.
On July 21, French foreign minister Laurent Fabius called on the Syrian opposition to rapidly form "a provisional government (that is) representative of the diversity of the Syrian society."
Source: Agence France Presse
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