Syria’s information minister, Omran al-Zoubi, accused France along with Turkey and Qatar of supporting “terrorism” in Syria by recognizing the new opposition Syrian National Coalition , including the acceptance of an official envoy in Paris, to remarks he made in an interview on al-Alam News Channel.

” This adoption proves again the involvement of the ruling institution in France, regardless of the president, along with Turkey and Qatar in supporting terrorism in Syria.”

Al-Zoubi stressed that the Syria opposition abroad has lost its free and independent will regarding accepting dialogue or not.

Meanwhile, Iran, hosted a summit in Tehran on Sunday to seek an end to the conflict in Syria.

Iranian officials said about 200 Syrian “political characters” had participated but there was no indication that the Syrian National Coalition, a new umbrella opposition group led by Sunni Muslim cleric Mouaz Alkhatib, had attended, according to Reuters.

Iran has backed the government of Syria, throughout the conflict, reportedly providing arms and training for government forces. In turn, Iran  has accused Western and Arab nations of stirring violence in Syria by arming opposition groups.

The Iranian Foreign Minister, Ali Akbar Salehi said in a speech in Tehran on Sunday, that “some countries envisage arming the opposition with heavy and semi-heavy weaponry.”

Salehi said such arms deliveries would set a “dangerous precedent” and constitute “a clear interference in the affairs of an independent country,” according to AFP.

His speech comes as EU foreign ministers are set to meet on Monday to discuss the lifting of the arms embargo to Syria.

France has publicly said it favours sending “defensive” weapons to the Syrian opposition, after recognising the new Syrian National coalition and deciding to host an ambassador in Paris.

There were reports Sunday of a minor exchange of fire across the border with Israel in the Golan Heights with no casualties, the third such incident reported this month, according to the israeli army.

The meeting comes one day after Syrian opposition forces launched on Saturday what is considered to be a major assault on a northern airbase used to deploy the regime with air power.

The Doha meeting is seen as the most serious push yet to form a united front in which many figures from the Syrian opposition are taking part to help end the 20-month ciris that has killed over 33,000 people.

Talks have emerged about a new plan to reshape the opposition into a representative leadership, as U.S. officials have expressed disappointment with the SNC’s inability to create a consistent plan and its lack of agreement and cooperation with different internal groups.

But there are serious doubts whether the split and ideologically different factions can come together and create a unified front in which the international community can cooperate with.

Dissident Riad Seif is apparently being suggested by the US as the head of the new government in exile.

Seif was among more than 20 opposition leaders who gathered in Jordan on Thursday to hammer out proposals for a new leadership, according to BBC.

The key subject is whether the main political opposition group, the Syrian National Council, which is made up of academics and Syrian exiles, will accept a U.S.-backed offer to set up a new 50-member leadership team with more representatives from inside Syria.

Under the new plan, called the Syrian National Initiative, the new leadership would also include representatives of the rebels’ Free Syrian army, political groups and local councils in Syria, Al Jazeera reported.

Meanwhile the attack on the Taftanaz base on saturday, from where helicopter gunships raid opposition positions and rebel-held areas, comes after regime forces this week launched an unprecedented wave of air strikes in a bid to reverse rebel gains, according to Al Arabiya.


The Syrian Revolution General Commission, a network of activists on the ground, said an operation had begun “to liberate the Taftanaz airbase.”

The two-day Istanbul meeting includes almost all opposition factions, while representatives from several Arab and Western countries were present as observers, along with a representative of international Syria envoy Kofi Annan, according to Al Jazeera.

The SNC has been widely criticized for not representing the full diversity of minority groups in Syria.

Last Sunday, the SNC appointed Kurdish activist Abdel Basset Sayda as its new leader after said Burhan Ghalioun, who stepped down last month as head of the main opposition group the Syrian National Council, amid mounting criticism having his presidency constantly renewed. Ghalioun had also been accused of ignoring the Local Coordination Committees, which spearhead anti-government protests on the ground in Syria, and of giving the Muslim Brotherhood too big a role.

Kurdish leader Sayda has pledged to embrace all groups to win a broader appeal.

“Our first aim is to create reform inside the [council] and reconstruct our structure [while] continuing our relations with the other groups in the opposition,” the council’s new leader, Kurdish activist Abdel Basset Sayda, told the Hurriyet Daily News in an interview on June 15, adding that all groups that wished to join the council would be welcomed.

Friday’s only major absentee was the National Coordination Committee for Democratic Change, a large group of Arabs, Kurds and socialists, who said “technical problems” prevented them from attending, other participants said, according to Hurriyet news. 

The meeting comes ahead of a planned major conference organized by opposition groups in Cairo under the auspices of the Arab League, although no date for that meeting has yet been announced.

In Turkey where the group is meeting, the number of registered Syrian refugees has topped 30,000, a Turkish foreign ministry official said on Friday, according to Al Arabiya.

UN officials have said Syria has now entered in a full-scale civil war, with activists saying more than 14,400 people have been killed since the uprising erupted in Mid-March 2011.

“Abdel Basset Sayda has been elected president of the Syrian National Council as successor to Dr. Burhan Ghalioun,” a brief statement on SNC’s official facebook page said.

He takes over from Paris-based academic Ghalioun, an exile living in Paris, who stepped down last month over mounting criticism for having had his presidency constantly renewed when the council was supposed to represent a democratic alternative to the rule of President Bashar al-Assad, Al Jazeera reported. Burhan Ghalioun,  had been president of the council since it was formed in August of last year.

SNC’s new president Sayda is another of those exiled academics, a philosophy professor who lived outside the country for some 18 years, more than a decade in Sweden.  Born in 1956 in Amuda, a mostly Kurdish city in northeastern Syria, Sayda is an expert in ancient civilizations and author of a number of books on Syria’s Kurdish minority but is Arabic educated, according to Reuters. 

The SNC has been repeatedly condemned for not representing the full diversity of Arabs, Kurds, Christians, Alawites, Sunni Muslims and other ethnic and religious groups in Syria.

A dozen Kurdish political groups are banned by Syrian authorities.

Opposition sources said the election of Sayda could help attract more Kurds, who number one million out of Syria’s 21 million population.

Demonstrations against Assad’s rule might have taken place in Kurdish regions of Syria but not as intense as protests in the rest of the country.

“The  Syrian National Council (SNC) calls on the UN Security Council to convene an immediate meeting to discuss the situation arising from the massacre in the presence of international observers, and determine the responsibility of the United Nations towards the genocide and forced displacement carried out by the regime against unarmed civilians,” according to a statement by SNC.

“The shelling on the town of Houla, Homs lasted for 12 hours, followed by a terrible massacre committed by the regime and its mercenaries,” SNC added.

Some of the victims were hit by heavy artillery, others “slaughtered with knives while entire families, were massacred  SNC said.

The National Council has also called on the Syrian people to declare mourning for three days and  and respond to the massacre, with more demonstrations, especially in Damascus and Aleppo.

Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory while giving a lower death toll of 55, agreed that this was “a real massacre” and complained that “U.N. observers are just staying silent” on the matter, according to Al Arabiya.

Meanwhile, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon blamed the Syrian government on Friday for much of the “unacceptable levels of violence and abuses” occurring every day in violation of a U.N.-backed peace plan.

Ban also called on all elements of the opposition to stop the violence and respect human rights.

“I declare my resignation as soon as a replacement is found through elections or consensus,” Ghalioun announced in a statement released by the Syrian National Council’s official facebook page.

“The results of the presidential election of the Syrian National Council has created reactions and criticism . As I have repeadetly stressed, I have not chosen this post for personal gain, but I have been accepting it to preserve unity and I will not accept to be a cause for division,” he added.

Ghalioun, who has led the Syrian National Council by consensus rather than through election since it was founded in October 2011, was re-elected as the main opposition group’s chairperson in a vote held in Rome on Tuesday despite SNC rules that require the chairperson’s rotation every three months, Reuters reported.

Some  activists have criticised him for being out of touch with the opposition inside Syria and for failing to unify the SNC.

“For my part I will remain to serve the revolution, I work from my side as a member of the Council, hand to hand combat with young people, youth, freedom, dignity, revolution until victory.

Ghalioun’s announcement came shortly after the Local Coordination Committees, a network of activists on the ground in Syria, threatened to pull out of the SNC over its “monopolization” of power, Al Arabiya reported.

On the other hand, Syrian authorities have stated that they have withdrawn tanks from all cities.

The spokesman said Annan has reports that Syrian security forces might have killed people who had met with U.N. monitors, and that the international envoy will tell the Security Council that there is a need for “stronger presence” of monitors in Syria, Reuters reported.

“We have credible reports that when they leave, the gunfire starts again, that these people who approach the observers may be approached by the Syrian security forces or the Syrian army or even worse, perhaps killed and this is totally unacceptable,” Fawzi added.

Head of the Syrian National Council, Burhan Ghalyoun, has warned that “If violence persists, we might need to use force to protect civilians.”

At the same time, State TV reported that three people were wounded when the car bomb that went off in the Marjeh district in Damascus, blaming an “armed terrorist group”.

“An armed terrorist group detonated the car bomb near the Yelbugha complex in Marjeh, wounding three people and causing damage to nearby buildings,” it reported.

It also said the bomb was placed under the car of an unsuspecting man, who was among those injured.

The blast came as the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said violence across the country killed approximately on Monday, despite the ceasefire.

Dimas emphasized the need for an immediate ceasefire and access to humanitarinan aid. Representative Haytham Manna said his group is committed to a non-violent transition to democracy.

The Coordination Committee, together with the Syrian National Council, are the two main factions of Syrian opposition. The Syrian National Council (SNC), recently formed in Istanbul, Turkey,  is at odds with the SNC. The organizations disagree on two of the most urgently contested issues: dialogue with the regime and foreign intervention.