ANTI-ASSAD "SYRIAN GOVERNMENT IN EXILE" TAKING SHAPE

TERRANET/(LEBANON):

A group of Syrian opposition leaders in exile agreed to launch a new coalition with the aim of setting up a transitional government if the Damascus regime were to collapse.

The exiles, including former Syrian vice president Abdelhalim Khaddam, agreed a declaration creating the "National Salvation Front" to unite "with a goal of setting up a transitional government," they told reporters.

KHALEEJ TIMES/(DUBAI):

BRUSSELS — Exiled Syrian opposition leaders including a former vice-president and the head of the Muslim Brotherhood said yesterday they were forming a united front to replace President Bashar Al Assad with democracy.

Former vice-president Abdel Halim Khaddam, who broke with Assad last year after serving under his late father Hafez Al Assad, told Reuters he held talks with nationalists, liberals, Islamists, Kurds and communists and would announce a common programme for a transition to democracy on Friday.

“The Syrian people are fed up with the current situation and we expect that a lot of new circumstances will lead to the uprising of the Syrian people,” he said in an interview. Khaddam forecast “regime change” in Damascus this year, within a few months...

Let's keep the pressure UP on Assad. The sooner we get rid of him the better we can squeeze Hizballah, Hamas and Iran (and close the Syrian-Iraq border, and reduce the flow of foreign fighters into Iraq). Stay tuned...