Syrian opposition ‘not yet ready for Arab League seat’

Syria’s currently suspended seat at the Arab League will remain vacant until the opposition completes forming its institutions, the pan-Arab group’s secretary general said on Sunday.

“The last Arab summit in Doha in March 2012 adopted the principle of granting Syria’s seat within the League to the opposition, but it has not yet established its institutions and must take further steps in this regard,” Nabil al-Arabi said after a meeting of the Arab Ministerial Council, Agence France-Presse reported.

Fierce response

The fierce response to the uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that began in March 2011 resulted in Damascus being suspended from the Arab League later that year.

Last November, Syrian National Coalition chief Ahmad al-Jarba said the opposition was claiming his country’s seat in the organization – although has since struggled to present a united front, and to impose legitimacy on the ground.

The Istanbul-based Coalition - which includes several largely non-Islamist opposition groups - is considered to be one of the most important representatives of the Syrian opposition.

However, Sunday’s League ministerial meeting invited Jarba to speak at its next meeting scheduled in Kuwait on March 25.

(With AFP)