Key Syrian opposition forces reject National Coalition

25/09/2013| IslamWeb

Key Syrian fighting groups say they do not recognize any foreign-based opposition group, including the Syrian National Coalition.

"The National Coalition and the proposed government under [recently chosen] Ahmad Tomeh does not represent us, nor do we recognize it," 13 of Syria's most powerful rebel groups said in a joint statement late on Tuesday.

The groups include members of the main Free Syrian Army, as well as Liwa al-Tawhid, the main rebel force in the northern province of Aleppo, and Jabhat al-Nusra.

The UN Security Council blacklisted al-Nusra Front as an alias of al-Qaeda in Iraq in May, while the US State Department had designated the group as a terrorist organization in December last year.

Ahrar al-Sham also signed on, as did the 19th Division, a significant but relatively new addition to the mainstream FSA.

In their statement, they also called for Islamic law to be applied.

"These forces call on all military and civilian groups to unite in a clear Islamic context that... is based on sharia [Islamic] law, making it the sole source of legislation," it said.

They called for "unity" and "to reject division... putting the interest of the [Islamic] nation over the interest of each group".

PHOTO CAPTION

In this Sunday, Sept. 22, 2013 photo, a Free Syrian Army fighter walks among rubble of a home destroyed by a warplane bomb at a village turned into a battlefield with government forces in Idlib province, north Syria.

Aljazeera