The Syrian opposition leaders struck a hard-won deal on Sunday under intense international pressure to form a broad, new coalition to prepare for the fall of President Bashar al-Assad.
Delegates, who had struggled for days in the Qatari capital Doha to find the unity their Western and Arab backers have long urged, said the new body would ensure a voice for religious and ethnic minorities and for the rebels fighting on the ground, who have complained of being overlooked by exiled dissident groups.
Here are the key points of the unity deal:
* The Syrian National Council (SNC) and other opposition factions present at the Doha meeting agreed to form a “National Coalition of Forces of the Syrian Revolution and Opposition,” open to all factions, with the statutes of the coalition defining the representation of each of its components.
* The parties agree to work for the fall of the regime and of all its symbols and pillars, and to dismantle the security organs by prosecuting all those implicated in crimes against Syrians.
* The coalition is committed not to take part in any dialogue or negotiations with the regime.
* The coalition has its statutes, to be signed after discussions and adoption.
* The coalition supports the unification of the revolutionary military councils under the leadership of a supreme military council.
* It has a national judicial commission… and technical and specialized commissions.
* It will form a provincial government after gaining international recognition.
* It will call for a national general congress once the regime falls.
* The coalition and the provisional government will be dissolved by the coalition after the national general congress and the formation of a transitional government.
* This accord will not come into force until it has been ratified by the relevant bodies of each of the contracting parties.
*The Arab ministerial committee on Syria will submit this accord to the Arab League general secretariat.
Reuters/ AFP/Now
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