Special to WorldTribune.com

NICOSIA — The Syrian opposition, seeking to expand its base, has
elected a Kurd as its new chief.

The Syrian National Council has elected Abdul Basset Sida as its new
president, replacing Burhan Ghalioun. Sida, named on June 10 as the sole
candidate, has been in exile in Sweden for 17 years.

“The regime is able to maintain control over only a few streets [in
Damascus],” Sida said on June 11.

The election of Sida, a Kurdish professor of Arabic, by the council’s
33-member secretariat marked an effort by the Syrian opposition to widen its base. SNC, established in August 2011, has been criticized in the West as dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood and refusing to cooperate with non-Islamist rebels.

Ghalioun, based in Paris, announced his resignation in May 2012 amid threats by factions to bolt SNC. Opposition sources said the Brotherhood, which sought to keep the 56-year-old Ghalioun as president, relented amid Western and Arab pressure.

“International leaders have demanded that the opposition develop into a
single organization in order to provide a clear channel for international
aid and support and to steer the revolution in a certain direction,”
Elizabeth O’Bagy, a researcher at the Washington-based Institute for the
Study of War, said.

Sida, 56, said his priority would be to recruit a range of Syrians to
SNC. He also said he planned to reform and restructure the council.

“We would like to reassure all sects and groups, especially Alawites and
Christians, that the future of Syria will be for the all of us,” Sida said.

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