A group claiming to represent the majority of the opposition movements inside Syria declared Thursday the foundation of a “National Alliance” of revolutionary forces aiming to topple the regime.
“Various revolutionary groups sought to unify their operational and political leadership to join forces and overthrow the regime,” Mohammed Bessam Imadi, a former Syrian ambassador to Sweden, told a press conference in Istanbul. “Now that the time is ripe, it has become necessary to declare our existence publicly. Therefore, we announce the National Alliance of Forces, Coordinators and Councils of the Syrian Revolution, Al-Leeqa,” he said, reading a statement.
“We have managed to gather all these groups under the same umbrella,” he said. Meanwhile, Syrian army deserters killed at least 27 soldiers and members of the security forces during clashes in the southern province of Daraa on Thursday, a rights group said. The fighting broke out at dawn at checkpoints in three separate locations, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. As the toll mounted, UN chief Ban Ki-moon urged world powers to act “in the name of humanity” against the crackdown, and the US State Department’s special coordinator on Middle East affairs, Frederic Hof, likened the Damascus regime to a “dead man walking.”
Iraq Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Thursday said Iraq will send a delegation to Syria to try to convince Damascus to implement a Baghdad initiative to end months of bloody conflict. The initiative is aimed at opening a dialogue between the opposition and the Syrian government to reach a result that satisfies both sides, he said.
Meanwhile, Canada announced Thursday it was organising an evacuation of its nationals from Syria, saying the situation in the violence-wracked Middle East nation “continues to deteriorate.” Foreign Minister John Baird said Ottawa had “have directed officials to undertake a voluntary evacuation over the next month” and in the meantime was calling on Canadians “to leave Syria immediately, by any available means and while options exist.”
