Mouaz al-Khatib is elected to head new opposition coalition formed in Doha to challenge Syrian regime.
Mouaz al-Khatib, a former imam, has been selected to head the newly-formed Syrian National Coalition, a delegate has revealed.
Riad Seif, an influential businessman who proposed the US-backed initiative to set up the umbrella organisation joining opposition groups inside and outside the nation, was elected as deputy president on Sunday.
Suhair al-Atassi, a well-known female activist, was elected as the second deputy president.
The unity deal, signed at a meeting in Qatar, was described as a hard-won victory for the Syrian opposition in the fight against Bashar al-Assad, Syrian president.
"We signed a 12-point agreement to establish a coalition," Riad Seif said.
Participants in marathon talks in Doha said discussions were continuing on details of a planned new government-in-waiting, but that the Syrian National Council had now heeded Arab and Western calls to join a new, wider coalition.
Reservations in SNC ranks about what many members saw as a move to sideline them had prompted repeated delays in the Doha talks.
But after negotiations that ran into the early hours of Sunday and resumed in the afternoon, opposition officials said a deal had finally been reached.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2012/11/20121111141834268537.html
Participants in marathon talks in Doha said discussions were continuing on details of a planned new government-in-waiting, but that the Syrian National Council had now heeded Arab and Western calls to join a new, wider coalition.
Reservations in SNC ranks about what many members saw as a move to sideline them had prompted repeated delays in the Doha talks.
But after negotiations that ran into the early hours of Sunday and resumed in the afternoon, opposition officials said a deal had finally been reached.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2012/11/20121111141834268537.html