SNC Chief Dismisses New Cabinet Line-Up as Sham

SNC chief Abdel Basset Sayda dismissed on Saturday the new line-up as a sham and charged that Syrian President Bashar Assad, whose family has ruled Syria for the past four decades, was incapable of bringing about any meaningful reform.

"The announcement of this government aims to give the impression that reforms have been brought in and that the only thing left was to form the government," Sayda told Agence France Presse by telephone in Beirut.

He said the time for demanding reforms had passed.

Assad on Saturday formed a new government, less than two months after controversial parliamentary elections boycotted by the opposition in conflict-hit Syria.

"Now we consider Assad as the main element of repression, and as a result he is incapable of implementing reforms," said the SNC chief.

Sayda said there was "no real change" in the government, with key posts remaining in the same hands. Jamil and Haidar "do not represent the opposition. They are under the control of the authorities," he said.

The new cabinet assumes power amid an intensification of repression and clashes in the country, which last week led to the halt of the United Nations observer mission.

International envoy Kofi Annan has urged the world to raise the level of pressure on both the armed opposition and the regime to try to end the violence that monitors say has cost 15,000 lives.