DOHA — The Syrian National Coalition (SNC) recognized by the Arab League as the sole representative for Syria opened its first embassy in Qatar Wednesday in a diplomatic blow to President Bashar Al-Assad. But opposition leader Moaz Al-Khatib, who took Syria's seat at an Arab summit in Doha Tuesday, used the ribbon-cutting ceremony to voice his frustration with world powers for failing to do more to help in the two-year-old struggle to topple Assad. “There is an international willingness for the revolution not to triumph,” he said. Al-Khatib, who resigned this week as leader of the SNC, but who is staying on as a caretaker, also alluded to internal differences plaguing the opposition umbrella group formed in Qatar in November. “The only way to victory is unity,” he declared. Damascus raged against summit host Qatar for helping the opposition into Syria's seat at the League, while Russia and Iran also criticized the move to delegitimize Assad's rule. Although the 22-member Arab bloc lent its support to giving weapons to Syrian rebels, it is unclear how much impact the opposition's diplomatic advances will have inside Syria. The Cairo-based coalition's control over insurgent groups is tenuous at best. Some of the most militarily effective openly reject its authority. Al-Khatib said he was surprised by a rebuff from the US and NATO to his request for Patriot missiles based in Turkey to help protect rebel-held parts of northern Syria from Assad's helicopters and warplanes. “I'm scared that this will be a message to the Syrian regime telling it ‘Do what you want',” he said. NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, speaking to students in Moscow via video link from Brussels, again said the Western alliance had no intention of intervening in Syria. “We believe that we need a political solution in Syria,” he said, noting there was no UN mandate for NATO action there. Disunity among the opposition in exile and the armed factions on the ground have long hindered the fight against Assad and have contributed to Western reluctance to intervene. — Reuters
