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View Full Version : Syria’s main opposition group picks Saudi-backed leader



Baluarte
07-08-2013, 01:34 PM
Syria’s opposition has elected a new leader backed by Saudi Arabia, capping a week in which the political balance of power in two of the Middle East’s great crises shifted strongly from Doha to Riyadh.

The Syrian National Coalition, the main umbrella opposition group, chose Ahmad Jarba as president after a close contest with Mustafa Sabbagh at the weekend, days after Saudi Arabia also celebrated the toppling of Egypt’s President Mohamed Morsi.

While the change in Syria’s ever-fractious opposition is far less significant than the coup in Cairo, analysts say both events show how Saudi Arabia is gaining traction in the region while Qatar wrestles with foreign policy failures and a domestic leadership transition.

“This policy for Qatar now is about damage limitation rather than advancing interests,” said Michael Stephens, a researcher at the Royal United Services Institute think-tank in Doha. “I think Saudi Arabia sees opportunities in this mess – and sees ways it can assert its interests.”

Mr Jarba, a tribal leader from eastern Syria who has Saudi connections, was chosen with unusual speed at an opposition meeting in Istanbul, filling a longstanding vacuum at the top of the coalition. Farouq Tayfour, a member of Mr Morsi’s Islamist Muslim Brotherhood movement, was elected as one of two vice-presidents, suggesting that the group still has considerable influence over the Syrian opposition – but not perhaps its previous level of control.

The Syrian branch of the Brotherhood tried to capitalise immediately on the leadership change by calling on the US and Europe to deliver promised military support to the rebels, who have suffered a series of military reverses over the past six weeks. Western powers have been nervous about arming the rebels because of jihadist groups’ growing influence, and because of infighting between armed and unarmed opposition factions, including within the Syrian National Coalition.

“We feel abandoned and disappointed that the United States and Europe have backed down from their position regarding arming the [rebel] Free Syrian Army and we call on the international community to fulfil its obligations,” said a statement posted by the Syrian Brotherhood on Twitter.

Mr Jarba’s election is also important for the rejection of Mr Sabbagh, the coalition secretary-general and a businessman who oversaw a Syrian opposition coalition budget largely financed by Qatar as part of a broader effort to pour as much as $3bn into the military and political campaign to unseat President Bashar al-Assad from Damascus. Mr Sabbagh’s defeat reflects a parallel shift on the Syrian military front, on which analysts say Doha is ceding its leading role in arming the rebels to Riyadh.

Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, Qatar’s new leader, has struck a measured tone since his father handed power to him last month, suggesting Doha’s era of foreign policy adventurism – including delivering billions of dollars of aid to Egypt under Mr Morsi – may now be tempered.

Qatar did not initially react to the ousting of Egypt’s president, only later issuing a statement of studied neutrality in which it promised to “continue to respect the will of Egypt and its people across the spectrum”.

Analysts say that Riyadh is in one sense merely asserting its position as the dominant Gulf regional power, a vast country much closer to the heart of world energy and security calculations than Qatar’s peninsular enclave.
Some in Riyadh resent what they see as the ostentation and arrogance of a Gulf neighbour that has fewer than 250,000 nationals, compared with Saudi Arabia’s estimated 20m.