(ISTANBUL- Zaman Alwasl)- 65 members of Syrian National Coalition Tuesday voted to dissolve the interim government as all efforts to give Mr. Ahmad Toumeh another chance have been failed in the ongoing 3-day meeting in Istanbul.
Zaman Alwasl sources say that
members loyal to the coalition former head Ahmed Jarba have fiercely rejected
Tumeh’s government and voted against giving the government another chance for a
new term. The Coalition said in a statement on
Tuesday it was dissolving its interim cabinet to "create new ground for
work on the basis of moving the government into the interior as soon as
possible, and employing Syrian revolutionary capabilities". The
coalition's interim Prime Minister Ahmed Toumeh and other ministers
would continue as caretakers until the new government was formed, it
said. Nominations would be open for two weeks and a new government
formed within 30 days. The
dissolution of the government comes two weeks after the group elected
Hadi al-Bahra, a U.S.-trained industrial engineer, to replace its
president, Ahmad Jarba, after he served his maximum two six-month terms.
Both Bahra and Jarba have close ties to Saudi Arabia, one of the main backers of the rebels trying to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Bahra
had also been chief negotiator at U.S. and Russian-sponsored peace
talks in Switzerland, which stalled after two rounds in January and
February.
The disputes between Jarba and Toumeh have been escalating since last June when the latter dissolved the Supreme Military Council (SMC). Jarba said the interim government’s decision was void and out of Tumeh’s powers.
Well-informed source told Zaman Alwasl that Mr. Iyad Qudsi to head the new government according to the big support from ‘Jarba’s front’.
The government with its 11 ministers was formed last November and based in the Turkish city of Gaziantep, near Syrian borders.
Opposition figures, said there’s a 'conflict of interest' between the interim government and the Coalition leadership.
The rifts have been escalated as the armed Islamist groups have become the most powerful force against Bashar al-Assad, who has long portrayed himself as the defender of a secular order in Syria.
Syria's conflict, now in its
fourth year, has killed at least 171,000 people, according to activists. Nearly
three million Syrians have fled the country. (With Reuters)
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