 |
| A contested crossing point to Syria |
France’s call for the speedy formation of a Syrian provisional
government is a political hot potato for the Syrian opposition.
With Kofi Annan’s troubleshooting mission dead and
buried, and internecine fighting raging across Syria, French Foreign Minister
Laurent Fabius said Saturday:
Whatever
its maneuvers, the regime of Bashar al-Assad is being condemned by its own
courageous people.
We
have been in contact with Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby, Qatari Prime
Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim Al Thani and others to find a solution to the
16-month crisis in Syria.
We
all agree the time has come to prepare the transition and the day after.
Time
has come for the opposition to get going in order to take command of the
country.
We look forward to the rapid formation of a
provisional government, which should be representative of the diversity of
Syrian society.
France fully supports the efforts of the Arab League
in this direction
We are ready
for any initiative, including the hosting of a ministerial meeting in Paris to
consolidate the efforts of Arab countries in building the Syria of tomorrow.
Along
with the European Union, we are also trying to provide help and necessary
support to the increasing number of refugees, in cooperation with neighboring
countries.
Annan’s
plan called for a political “transitional
government” in Damascus led by Syria and comprising both loyalist and
opposition figures whereas a “provisional
government” as proposed by France would be set up solely by the opposition.
As
explained by Wikipedia,
a “provisional government”
is an emergency or interim government set up when a political void has been
created by the collapse of a very large government… Provisional governments are
generally unelected and tend to arise in association with or in the aftermath
of civil or foreign wars.”
In
addition to provisional governments established by European nations under Nazi
occupation, Wikipedia lists some 20 other examples of provisional governments
active in the 20th and 21st centuries.
It
is still unclear if the Arab League’s Syria task group meeting in Doha tonight
would endorse the idea of the Syrian opposition setting up a provisional
government.
Represented
on the Syria task group, in addition to Elaraby, are Algeria, Egypt, Sudan,
Qatar and Oman.
The
big question of course is whether the Syrian opposition groups can see eye to
eye on a representative provisional government, its political program and
lineup.
To
their credit, the oppositions groups were able to endorse plans for a new
democratic, pluralistic and civilian Syria at their two-day meeting earlier
this month at Arab League headquarters in Cairo. (See my July 4 post, “Syria
opposition thrashes out post-Assad roadmap”).
Advantages
of the opposition’s umbrella group known as the Syrian National
Council (SNC) making common cause with the Free Syrian Army (FSA)
and the Local
Coordination Committees of Syria (LCCs) to co-opt other opposition factions
and grassroots activists and set up a Syrian Provisional Government (SPG) are
many.
As
the brainchild of France and the Arab League, I suppose SPG would, among other
things:
- be recognized upon declaration as legitimate representative of the Syrian people in most Western and Arab capitals.
- be able to open offices in key world capitals to muster support for post-Assad Syria and solicit, coordinate and then apportion donor assistance.
- create a credible vehicle for approaching other governments
- demonstrate seriousness of planning, entice participation of Syria’s internal opposition, encourage defections and increase pressure on Assad
- allow opposition leaderships to build unity and trust and gradually gel in a common political body.
- provide international legal status to FSA combatants.
- potentially dilute ethnic and sectarian sensitivities and interests.
By
the way, I learned today that the most notable provisional
government was the Russian
Provisional Government in 1917.
