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| French President Hollande at his press conference |
France
Tuesday became the first Western country to formally and unequivocally
recognize Syria's newly formed National
Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces as “the sole
legitimate representative of the Syrian people.”
President François Hollande
announced the move at his first televised news conference at the helm in Paris.
He told
reporters at the Élysée Palace, “I announce today that France
recognizes the Syrian National Coalition as the sole legitimate representative of the
Syrian people and thus as the future
transitional government of a democratic Syria, allowing it to bring down the
curtain on Bashar al-Assad's regime. Wherever liberated zones are established,
they should come under its [the Coalition’s] authority.”
Hollande
said France would look at the question of arming the Coalition, but that it
would not support doing so "as long as it wasn't clear where these weapons
went".
"With
the Coalition, as soon as it is a legitimate government of Syria, this [arming]
question will be looked at by France, but also by all countries that recognize
this government," he said.
The Obama
administration’s attitude vis-à-vis the Syrian opposition body it helped create
in Doha earlier this week remains overtly ambivalent.
U.S. State
Department spokesman Mark Toner told Tuesday’s press briefing Washington
recognized the National Coalition as a legitimate representative, but stopped
short of describing it as a sole representative, saying the group must first
demonstrate its ability to represent Syrians inside the country.
Here is
how Toner put it:
“We did issue a
statement the other day congratulating the representatives of the Syrian people
who gathered in Doha for their formation of the National Coalition for Syrian
Revolutionary and Opposition Forces. We look forward, obviously, to supporting
the National Coalition as it charts a course for the end of Assad’s bloody rule
and marks the start, we believe, of a peaceful, just, and democratic future for
the people of Syria.
“Obviously, we’re
going to work with them in the coming days to ensure that our humanitarian and
nonlethal assistance serves the needs of the Syrian people. In answer to your –
in direct answer to your question, what happens now or what are you looking for
next, I think we now have a structure in place that can prepare for a political
transition, but that we’re looking for it to still establish the types of
technical committees that will allow us to make sure our assistance gets to the
right places, both nonlethal and humanitarian…
“We do think this is
a legitimate representative of the Syrian people, that it does reflect the
Syrian people, as we talked about, that diverse group of Syrian people. We
think it meets those needs. I think as we move forward though, we’re going to
look to see it, as I said, finalize the establishment of its organizational
structures. We also want to see that it has a demonstrated ability to represent
Syrians within Syria. I think that’s another aspect we’re going to look at…”
The United Kingdom
was far more evasive than the United States.
British
Foreign Minister William Hague, speaking at the Arab League in Cairo on the
same day as Hollande and Toner, said the opposition Coalition must gain support
from within Syria.
"That is a very crucial consideration, and if they do these
things well then yes we would then be able to recognize them as the legitimate
representatives of the Syrian people," he said.
France has now gone further than even the Arab League and Gulf
Cooperation Council (GCC) in their respective recognitions of the opposition
Coalition.
While Paris recognized it as “the sole legitimate representative of the Syrian people,”
the League of Arab states described it simply as “the legitimate representative and principal interlocutor
with the Arab League.”
The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) grouping Saudi Arabia, Qatar,
Kuwait, Bahrain, the UAE and Oman spoke softheartedly of the new Syrian body as
“the legitimate
representative of the brotherly Syrian people.”
