Syrian main exiled opposition group on November 2 accused Washington of undermining the country’s revolution by seeking to overhaul how regime opponents are organised. Two days ahead of key opposition talks due in Qatar, the Syrian National Council lashed out at US criticism of the group for not being fully representative of Syria’s diverse dissident groups. “Any discussions aimed at passing over the Syrian National Council or at creating new bodies to replace it are an attempt to undermine the Syrian revolution by sowing the seeds of division,” the SNC said in a statement.
Talk of an overhaul “is a sign of a lack of seriousness of the forces meant to support the Syrian people who are facing the murderous regime” of President Bashar Assad, the SNC said. Reacting to accusations it is not inclusive, the group said it had grown from 280 to 420 members, that a third of its members are on-the-ground activists and that 15 per cent of its members are women. Syrian fighters have taken full control of a strategic crossroads in the northwest that further limits the government’s ability to reinforce its troops in second city Aleppo.