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Chief of Staff Brig. Gen. Salim Idriss (center) and
aides, clockwise from left:
Mustafa Abdelkareem, Abdelkader Saleh, Ziad Fahd
and Abdeljabbar Akidi
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Syrian opposition
commanders from across the country have joined forces under a unified command
to enhance coordination among diverse rebel groups fighting to topple President
Bashar al-Assad.
More than 500 delegates
representing most of the brigades involved in the fighting had been meeting
since Wednesday in the Turkish resort of Antalya to form a united rebel front.
By Saturday, they announced
the election of a 30-member Unified Military Council and a Chief of Staff.
The delegates chose
Brig. Gen. Salim Idriss, who defected from Assad's army last March, as the chief
of staff. They also divided Syria into five regions, each of which will be
under one of Idriss' assistants.
A civilian to handle
non-military affairs will second each of the assistants.
The new structure
includes high-ranking officers as well as important on-the-ground commanders.
Among them are Brig. Gen. Ziad Fahd, Brig. Gen. Abdelkader Saleh, Col.
Abdeljabbar Akidi, Col. Mustafa Abdelkareem, Jamal Maarouf, Ahmad Issa and Abdelbaset
Taweel.
Extremist rebel groups
-- chiefly the al-Qaeda-inspired Jabhat al-Nusra -- were excluded from the
huddle in Antalya.
The Military Council
will work hand in glove with the political leadership chosen in Doha last month
– namely, the Syrian National Coalition of Revolutionary and Opposition Forces
headed by Ahmed Moaz el-Khatib.
The move toward greater
unity on the armed front comes as the U.S. and the West try to prod the
National Coalition to have broader political representation and stronger links to
rebel fighters.
France, Turkey, Japan, Britain,
Denmark, the Gulf Cooperation Council, the majority of Arab League member
states, among others, have recognized the National Coalition as “the legitimate
representative of the Syrian people.”
The U.S. and others are
expected to recognize it at an international "Friends of Syria"
conference in Marrakesh, Morocco, that begins on Wednesday, December 12.
National Coalition
chief Khatib called Saturday for talks between all anti-regime groups to
hold talks to form a transitional government.
In a televised speech, he
said the National Coalition does not seek public office and that it would disband
once free elections are held in the new Syria.
Khatib said talks were also
underway to form a judiciary to be put in place immediately after the overthrow
of Assad's regime to avoid chaos.
He urged all Syrians –
“whether military or civilian, Muslim or Christian, Alawite or Druze, Arab or
Kurd, Ismaili or Assyrian” – to remain inseparable and ward off any Syria
partition plan.
