President Obama has confirmed his administration will recognize the Syrian opposition coalition as the official representative of the Syrian people, joining previous moves by Britain and France. Obama made the announcement in an interview with ABC News.
President Obama: “We’ve made a decision that the Syrian opposition coalition is now inclusive enough, is reflective and representative enough of the Syrian population, that we consider them the legitimate representative of the Syrian people in opposition to the Assad regime.”
Obama was followed hours later by the Friends of Syria meeting in Morocco, where representatives of Gulf and Western nations also agreed to recognize the Syrian opposition. In the latest violence from Syria, as many as 200 people belonging to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s Alawite minority sect have been killed or injured in a central village. The attackers are unknown.