Five Syrian groups to act together

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

Five Syrian opposition groups announced they have decided to form a coalition to act together in supporting the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and toppling the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria.

The new coalition is made up of the liberal National Movement for Change, led by Ammar al-Qurabi, the Liberation and Construction Block, led by Nawaf al-Bashir, a tribal chief, the Islamist Movement for the Fatherland, the Turkmen National Bloc, and the Kurdish Movement for a New Life.

“We are not uniting with each other, but we are uniting our vision with the aim of getting the al-Assad regime to step down and helping the fighters on the ground,” the Liberation and Construction Block’s chairman for foreign affairs Tariq Said told Hürriyet Daily News on March 18.

The formation of the Liberation and Construction Block was announced by a group of prominent Syrian defectors on March 13 in Istanbul. The five groups, meeting in Istanbul, said their as yet unnamed coalition is independent of the prominent opposition group the Syrian National Council (SNC); however, the group will support the SNC.

“We are not against the SNC. We support the SNC, but we don’t support the SNC’s current executive council; we want reform in the executive council,” Said said. “We are trying to gather together as much of the opposition as we can, to encourage the international community to help the Syrian people by supporting the FSA, announcing a no-fly zone, and creating a buffer zone and safe corridors in Syria.”