Assad’s foes get nod from Obama

They represent Syria, he asserts

A Syrian rebel watches a government aircraft Tuesday in the sky over Fafeen village north of Aleppo, near the Sheik Suleiman military base that rebels reportedly seized after a two-day battle.

A Syrian rebel watches a government aircraft Tuesday in the sky over Fafeen village north of Aleppo, near the Sheik Suleiman military base that rebels reportedly seized after a two-day battle.

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

— President Barack Obama declared Syria’s main opposition group the sole “legitimate representative” of its country’s people Tuesday, deeming the move “a big step” in the international diplomatic efforts to end Syrian President Bashar Assad’s embattled regime.

INTERACTIVE

Uprising in Syria

Obama said the newly formed council “is now inclusive enough” to be granted the elevated status, which paves the way for the greater U.S. support for the organization.

“Obviously, with that recognition comes responsibilities,” Obama said in an interview Tuesday with ABC News. “To make sure that they organize themselves effectively, that they are representative of all the parties, that they commit themselves to a political transition that respects women’s rights and minority rights.”

Obama notably did not commit himself to providing arms to the rebels he is recognizing, nor to supporting them militarily with airstrikes or the establishment of a no-fly zone, a stance that has led to a rise of anti-American sentiment among many of the rebels.

The Obama administration coupled its recognition with the designation hours earlier of a militant Syrian rebel group as a foreign terrorist organization, affiliated with al-Qaida.

“Not everybody who is participating on the ground in fighting Assad are people that we are comfortable with,” Obama said in an interview on the ABC program 20/20. “There are some who I think have adopted an extremist agenda, an anti-U.S. agenda.”

But Obama praised the opposition, known formally as the National Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, for what he said was its inclusiveness, its openness to various ethnic and religious groups, and its ties to local councils involved in the fighting against Assad’s security forces.

“At this point we have a well-organized-enough coalition — opposition coalition that is representative — that we can recognize them as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people,” he said.

Recognition of the council as the sole representative of Syria’s diverse population brings the U.S. in line with Britain, France and several of the United States’ Arab allies, which took the same step shortly after the body was created at a meeting of opposition representatives in Qatar last month.

But Obama’s move does not go so far as to confer on the opposition the legal authority of a state. It does not, for example, recognize the opposition’s right to gain access to Syrian government money, take over the Syrian Embassy in Washington or enter into binding diplomatic commitments.

Andrew Tabler, a senior fellow and a Syria expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said: “The recognition is designed as a political shot in the arm for the opposition. But it’s happening in the context of resentment among the Syrian opposition, especially armed elements, of the White House’s lack of assistance during the Syrian people’s hour of need. This is especially true among armed groups.”

The administration’s blacklisting of a militant Syrian rebel group is aimed at blunting the influence of extremists amid fears that the regime may use or lose control of its stockpile of chemical weapons.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Tuesday that the Syrian government seems to have slowed preparations for the possible use of chemical weapons against rebel forces. Last week, U.S. officials said there was evidence that Syrian forces had begun preparing sarin, a nerve agent, for possible use in bombs.

“At this point the intelligence has really kind of leveled off,” Panetta told reporters traveling with him to Kuwait, where he will visit U.S. troops at the start of a four-day trip. “We haven’t seen anything new indicating any aggressive steps to move forward in that way.”

Asked whether he believed that Assad was heeding Western warnings against using chemical weapons, Panetta said: “I like to believe he’s got the message. We’ve made it pretty clear. Others have as well.”

The government in Damascus has been careful not to confirm that it has chemical weapons, while insisting it would never use such weapons against its own people.

U.S. recognition of the opposition council is expected to be a centerpiece of an international conference on the Syria crisis in Morocco this week. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton had been due to attend today’s meeting in Marrakech but canceled her trip because she was ill with a stomach virus, her spokesman, Philippe Reines, said. Instead, Deputy Secretary of State William Burns will lead the U.S. delegation.

On Monday, Clinton designated Jabhat al-Nusra, or “the Support Front” in Arabic, a foreign terrorist organization. The move freezes any assets its members may have in U.S. jurisdictions and bars Americans from providing the group with material support. The designation is largely symbolic because the group is not thought to have holdings or support in the United States, but officials hope the penalties will encourage others to take similar action and discourage Syrians from joining.

That step was part of a package intended to help the leadership of the opposition council improve its standing and credibility as it pushes ahead with planning for a post-Assad future.

The administration took further action Tuesday against extremists on both sides, with the Treasury Department setting separate sanctions against two senior al-Nusra leaders and two militant groups operating under the control of the Syrian government. Two commanders of the pro-Assad shabiha force also were targeted.

The U.S. had been leading international efforts to prod the fractured Syrian opposition into coalescing around a leadership that would truly represent all of the country’s factions and religions. Yet it had held back from granting recognition to the group until it demonstrated that it could organize itself in credible fashion.

In particular, Washington had wanted to see the group set up smaller committees that could deal with specific immediate and short-term issues, such as governing currently liberated parts of Syria and putting in place institutions to address the needs of people once Assad is ousted. Some of those committees could form the basis of a transitional government.

The conflict started nearly 21 months ago as an uprising against Assad, whose family has ruled the country for four decades. It quickly morphed into a civil war, with rebels taking up arms to fight back against a bloody crackdown by the government. According to activists, more than 40,000 people have been killed since March 2011.

Also Tuesday, Syrian rebels including Islamic extremists took full control of a sprawling military base after a bloody two-day battle that killed 35 soldiers, activists said.

The Sheik Suleiman military base was the second major base captured in the north by the rebels, who also are making inroads farther south toward the capital, Damascus.

Fighters from jihadi groups, including Jabhat al-Nusra, were among those doing battle in the rebel ranks as they took control of Sheik Suleiman base, near the northern city of Aleppo, according to activists.

Information for this article was contributed by Matthew Lee, Robert Burns, Julie Pace, Bassem Mroue and Barbara Surk of The Associated Press and by Mark Landler and Michael R. Gordon of The New York Times.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 12/12/2012