President Barack Obama declared
Syria's main opposition group the sole "legitimate
representative" of its country's people Tuesday, deeming the move "a big step" in the international diplomatic efforts to end
Syrian President Bashar Assad's embattled regime.
Obama said the newly formed
Syrian Opposition Council
"is now inclusive enough" to be granted the elevated status, which
paves the way for the greater U.S. support for the organization.
"Obviously, with that recognition comes responsibilities," Obama said
in an interview Tuesday with ABC News. "To make sure that they organize
themselves effectively, that they are representative of all the
parties, that they commit themselves to a political transition that
respects women's rights and minority rights."
Recognition of the council as the sole representative of Syria's
diverse population brings the U.S. in line with Britain, France and
several of America's Arab allies, which took the same step shortly after
the body was created at a meeting of opposition representatives in
Qatar last month.
Obama's announcement follows his administration's blacklisting of a
militant Syrian rebel group with links to al-Qaida. That step is aimed
at blunting the influence of extremists amid fears that the regime may
use or lose control of its stockpile of chemical weapons.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Tuesday that the
Syrian government
seems to have slowed preparations for the possible use of chemical
weapons against rebel forces. Last week, U.S. officials said there was
evidence that Syrian forces had begun preparing sarin, a nerve agent,
for possible use in bombs.
"At this point the intelligence has really kind of leveled off,"
Panetta told reporters traveling with him to Kuwait, where he will visit
U.S. troops at the start of a four-day trip. "We haven't seen anything
new indicating any aggressive steps to move forward in that way."
U.S. recognition of the opposition council is expected to be a
centerpiece of an international conference on the Syria crisis in
Morocco this week. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton had been
due to attend Wednesday's meeting in Marrakech but canceled her trip
because she was ill with a stomach virus, her spokesman, Philippe
Reines, said. Instead, Deputy Secretary of State William Burns will lead
the U.S. delegation.
On Monday, Clinton designated Jabhat al-Nusra, or "the Support Front"
in Arabic, a foreign terrorist organization. The move freezes any
assets its members may have in U.S. jurisdictions and bars Americans
from providing the group with material support. The designation is
largely symbolic because the group is not thought to have holdings or
support in the United States, but officials hope the penalties will
encourage others to take similar action and discourage Syrians from
joining.
That step was part of a package intended to help the leadership of
the Syrian Opposition Council improve its standing and credibility as it
pushes ahead with planning for a post-Assad future.
The administration took further action Tuesday against extremists on
both sides, with the Treasury Department setting separate sanctions
against two senior al-Nusra leaders and two militant groups operating
under the control of the Syrian government. Two commanders of the
pro-Assad shabiha force also were targeted.
"We will target the pro-Assad militias just as we will the terrorists
who falsely cloak themselves in the flag of the legitimate opposition,"
said David S. Cohen, the department's sanctions chief.
More significant, though, is the upgraded status for the council.
It's expected to be accompanied by pledges of additional humanitarian
and nonlethal logistical support for the opposition. It's unlikely that
the U.S. would add military assistance to that, at least in the
short-term. Providing arms remains a matter of intense internal debate
inside the administration, officials said.
The U.S. had been leading international efforts to prod the fractured
Syrian opposition
into coalescing around a leadership that would truly represent all of
the country's factions and religions. Yet it had held back from granting
recognition to the group until it demonstrated that it could organize
itself in credible fashion.
In particular, Washington had wanted to see the group set up smaller
committees that could deal with specific immediate and short-term
issues, such as governing currently liberated parts of Syria and putting
in place institutions to address the needs of people once Assad is
ousted. Some of those committees could form the basis of a transitional
government.
Officials said the U.S. evolution in recognizing Syria's opposition
would closely mirror the process the administration took last year in
Libya with its opposition.
"I would remind you of how this went in the Libya context where we
were able to take progressive steps as the Libyan opposition themselves
took steps to work with them, and to advance the way we dealt with them
politically," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Monday.
In that case, Libya's National Transitional Council moved from being
"a'' legitimate representative to "the" legitimate representative of the
Libyan people. While the revolution was still going on, the council
then opened an office in Washington, and the administration sent the
late Ambassador Chris Stevens to Benghazi, Libya, as an envoy in return.
The move also opened the door for Libya's new leaders to access
billions of dollars in assets frozen in U.S. banks that had belonged to
the Gadhafi regime.
The move could allow the Syrian opposition to set up a liaison office in Washington with a de facto ambassador.
It is unclear, however, given the level of violence in Syria and the
potential threat of chemical weapons, if the U.S. would soon send a
representative to rebel-controlled areas of the country.
The conflict started 20 months ago as an uprising against Assad,
whose family has ruled the country for four decades. It quickly morphed
into a civil war, with rebels taking up arms to fight back against a
bloody crackdown by the government. According to activists, at least
40,000 people have been killed since March 2011.
