Wednesday’s break-away by at least 11 insurgent groups, rejecting the opposition Syrian National Coalition and Supreme Military Council, has brought a response from Anas Al Abda, a member of the Coalition’s Political Committee.
Al Abda said the “timing of the statement released by the Islamic brigades yesterday was not appropriate at all”, as a Coalition delegation was in New York for the annual meeting of the United Nations General Assembly.
Video of an earlier statement in December 2012 from the insurgent groups:
Al Abda maintained, “The brigades that signed the statement do not represent the most important Free Syrian Army brigades on the ground; there are large brigades that did not sign the statement.”
He continued, “Suggesting such ideas and prescribing a specific color to the type of governance at this time causes rifts among the revolutionaries and brings into the question the strength of the revolution inside and outside Syria.”
Al Abda also declared that the groups had erred in including Jabhat al-Nusra in their staetment because the faction “is tied to Al Qaeda [and] has a working agenda that is not Syrian”.