Syria Opposition Bloc Meets to Choose New Leader

Leaders of the exiled Syrian National Council met in Turkey on Saturday to pick a new leader after the resignation of Burhan Ghalioun last month to avert divisions in the opposition bloc.

The vote came as Western powers moved to slap sanctions on Damascus amid mounting anger over a massacre in a central village blamed on regime troops and fears of a full-fledged civil war in Syria.

Ghalioun resigned on May 17 to avert a possible split in the SNC after activists on the ground accused him of hogging power and not coordinating enough with the Local Coordination Committees, which are spearheading anti-government protests on the street.

His detractors also accused him of allowing the Muslim Brotherhood to play a leading role within the SNC.

Sources in the group said the aim was to pick a "consensus" candidate who would be acceptable to Islamists, liberals and nationalists.

They said that could be Abdel Basset Sayda, a Kurd, and member of the SNC's executive office.

Sayda, who lives in exile in Sweden, joined the SNC as an "independent activist," according to his friend and fellow Kurdish militant Massud Akko.

He is a member of the SNC's executive bureau and heads the bloc's human rights department.

He was born in 1956 in Amuda, a mostly Kurdish city in the northeastern Syrian province of Hassakeh.

"He is honest, level-headed and cultured," Akko said.