Syrian opposition considers sacking its U.S.-backed interim leader | McClatchy
▻http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/05/17/191618/syrian-opposition-considers-sacking.html
Résultat de la rivalité qataro-saoudienne, la carrière de Ghassan Hitto menacée,
Hitto’s ouster after just two months would deal a double blow to the State Department, which has spent more than $60 million to boost the credibility of the Syrian opposition. (...).
U.S. diplomats have been pushing the fragmented anti-Assad movement toward a single body that would be poised to take over in the event of regime collapse and had hoped to identify credible, moderate partners to represent the opposition at the peace conference it hopes will take place next month in Geneva. The deep disarray that a leadership change is likely to engender could derail both those initiatives.
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Two members of the Syrian Opposition Coalition separately confirmed to McClatchy what Arabic-language news reports have said for days: that Hitto is at great risk of being pushed out because his post has become mired in a tug of war between Saudi Arabia and Qatar over Syria’s future. The two Persian Gulf countries are major financiers of the opposition, but the Saudis have balked at Qatar’s support for the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist group that dominates the political opposition.
“There are some regional powers who are not in favor of appointing Mr. Hitto,” Walid Saffour, the opposition coalition’s political representative in Britain, said in a phone interview from London. “For now, he’s the elected prime minister, but I don’t know what will happen next week.”
For weeks, State Department officials have talked up Hitto, saying he’d sacrificed a comfortable life in Texas to join the fight against Assad and praising his willingness to cross into rebel-held territories in Syria when many exiled opposition figures won’t. However, the internal election that brought Hitto to power in March was problematic from the start, with many complaining that he was imposed by some combination of the Muslim Brotherhood, Qatar and the United States.