Syrian National Council Suffers Another Resignation
A prominent dissident resigned Tuesday from the so-called "Syrian National Council" (SNC) , dealing another blow to the Istanbul-based Syrian opposition, that has seen several senior figures quit in the last few months.
The resignation of Fawaz Tello came hours after the council's general secretariat, a body of 45 of whom 33 were present, re-elected Burhan Ghalioun as president for another three-month term at a meeting in Rome.
Tello, said he was leaving "because the council had been avoiding democratic reform and resisting international efforts to re-organize itself and unify the opposition."
"I left Syria three months ago to help the council be servant of the revolution and transform it into a democratic model," Tello said in a statement. "But the efforts that I and others have been making have been thwarted by the personal ambitions of those holding the reins of the council."
Tello said a decision by the council to snub an Arab League invitation for a broad opposition meeting in Cairo this month was a factor behind his resignation.
The SNC said it declined the invitation to go to Cairo because the invitation had only been for individual SNC members, not for the council itself.
"The SNC has been foiling the most serious of attempts to unite the opposition," Tello added.
Several senior opposition figures have left the SNC since the beginning of the year, saying its leadership is preoccupied with personal rivalries and not doing enough to back an increasingly militarized revolt. Among them is Haitham al-Maleh, and Kamal al-Labwani.
Syria's opposition in general has been fractured since the beginning of its movements, and its members have struggled to reconcile their differences.
Several internal opposition groups have dismissed the SNC as a pawn for Saudi Arabia and Qatar, accusing the group of serving the interests of the autocratic Gulf states and not that of the Syrian people.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by moqawama.org
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