Syrian government warns other nations not to recognise anti-regime opposition

DAMASCUS // Syria's foreign minister, Walid Moallem, promised yesterday to retaliate against any country that recognises the opposition Syrian National Council, as anti-regime groups continued efforts to get Russia and China to reduce their support for President Bashar Al Assad.

"We will take significant measures against any country that recognises this illegitimate council," Mr Moallem said at a news conference in Damascus after meeting foreign ministers from Latin America.

The Syrian National Council (SNC), formed in Istanbul at the end of August, unites major opposition factions, including the Muslim Brotherhood, Local Coordination Committees and Kurdish and secular activist groups. While broadly welcomed as a step forward for the anti-regime movement, it has not been recognised internationally as a legitimate representative of the Syrian people.

One of its leading members, Meshaal Tammo, was assassinated by gunmen in north-eastern Syria on Friday, a killing that opposition figures, the United States and Turkey blamed on the regime.

Mr Moallem said an "armed terrorist group" was responsible for the murder, and repeated assurances that Syria was undergoing serious political reform

He also fired a warning shot at Turkey, which is expected to announce economic sanctions against Syria soon. The Turkish prime minister, Racep Tayyip Erdogan, until recently a close ally of the Syrian president, is now firmly lined up against his former friend's autocratic regime, accusing it of "savagery" in suppressing protests.

Mr Moallem said: "Syria will not stay with its arms crossed. If Turkey throws us a flower, we will send them one back."

His remarks came as the two major opposition blocs, the SNC and the National Board of Coordination (NBC), both stepped up efforts to change Russian and Chinese policy on Syria.

Beijing and Moscow have given Mr Al Assad crucial diplomatic support at the United Nations Security Council, using their veto powers to block repeated efforts by Europe and the United States to pass a resolution of condemnation.

On Saturday, NBC officials had a two-hour meeting with the Chinese deputy ambassador in Damascus, their first face-to-face talks. NBC officials have previously met the US and Spanish ambassadors to Syria.

Abdul Aziz Al Kheyr, a former political prisoner and a member of the NBC executive bureau who took part in Saturday's talks, said: "It was a good meeting, we exchanged our views about the situation in Syria, and Chinese policy both here and in the region.

"They explained why they had used their veto in the UN security council and we explained our viewpoint about the Syrian regime's promises to reform and we stressed to them we are against foreign military intervention in Syria."

Opposition activists say China and Russia, as long-term allies of Syria, can exert much more influence over the regime than the US, Europe or the UN. On Friday, the Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev, appeared to harden his stance, saying the Syrian leadership would "have to go" if it did not deliver on often-repeated promises to reform, but he said that decision was not for the international community to take.

An NBC member, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: "Those remarks by Moscow are important, but we demand an even clearer and stronger expression of pressure on the Syrian regime by Russia and China. It is very important for Russia and China to use their influence to calm down the Syrian regime and convince it that it is walking straight into a dead end and that it must change its path now."

At a news conference on Saturday, the NBC announced that the veteran dissident Hassan Abdul Azeem had been elected its general coordinator, with the Kurdish political leader Saleh Mohammad chosen as his deputy.

It also named a 27-member executive bureau, including dissidents from Syria's various sects and ethnic groups. Among them were Aref Dalila, Basam Malik, Fayez Sara, Mahmoud Muraie, Raja Nasser, Hussein Oudat and Ahmed Fayez Fawaz.

The coalition has brought experienced opposition political activists together with the new generation of street protesters, their basic platform a rejection of violence, foreign military intervention and sectarianism.

The NBC also refuses negotiations with the regime until it ends deadly security operations against protesters.

NBC members said they intended to send an independent delegation to Moscow to meet Russian officials. Mr Dalila and Mr Fawaz met a delegation of Russian senators in Syria last month.

Those efforts to convince Moscow that the uprising is a largely peaceful demand for democracy and civil rights, and that Mr Al Assad is not sincere about reforming, failed, with Russia subsequently using its Security Council veto in support of the Syrian regime.

An NBC official said: "We did not succeed then, but in the world of politics and diplomacy you must keep trying, so we will try to talk to the Russians again and to convince them their position is not helping solve the Syrian crisis."

Moscow said on Saturday that it would soon be receiving Syrian opposition politicians for unofficial talks and that it also expected a visit from SNC delegates before the end of the month.

There have been signals the SNC and NBC will work together. A leading dissident, speaking on condition of anonymity, said representatives of the two blocs were meeting in Sweden this week, which suggests the notoriously fractured opposition is finally overcoming its divisions.

More than 2,900 people have been killed since the uprising began, according to the United Nations. Human-rights groups say Syrian security forces are responsible for the overwhelming majority of the deaths.

Syrian officials insist they are fighting a foreign-backed Islamist insurgency, with militants killing more than 1,100 security personnel and civilians.

psands@thenational.ae