To applause from Arab heads of state, a foe of Bashar al-Assad took Syria’s vacant seat at an Arab summit yesterday, deepening the Syrian President’s diplomatic isolation and diverting attention from opposition rifts.
We are still waiting for a decision from Nato to protect people’s lives, not to fight but to protect lives
Speaking at an annual gathering of Arab leaders in the Gulf state of Qatar, Moaz Alkhatib said he had asked US Secretary of State John Kerry for American forces to help defend rebel-controlled northern parts of Syria with Patriot surface-to-air missiles now based in Turkey.
Nato swiftly rebuffed the idea.
The insurgents complain that they have few weapons to counter Assad’s helicopter gunships and warplanes.
“It was a historic meeting. You could feel the grandiose nature of the meeting,” said opposition spokesman Yaser Tabbara. “It’s a first step towards acquiring full legal legitimacy.”
Alkhatib said the US, which has given non-military aid to Syrian rebels, should play a bigger role in helping end the two-year-old conflict in Syria, blaming Assad’s government for what he called its refusal to solve the crisis.
“I have asked Mr Kerry to extend the umbrella of the Patriot missiles to cover the Syrian north and he promised to study the subject,” he said, referring to Nato Patriot missile batteries sent to Turkey last year to protect Turkish airspace.
“We are still waiting for a decision from Nato to protect people’s lives, not to fight but to protect lives,” he added, addressing a body that barred Assad’s government in late 2011.
Responding to Alkhatib’s remarks, an official of the Western military alliance at its headquarters in Brussels said: “Nato has no intention to intervene militarily in Syria.”
Turkey said it would be up to the rest of Nato to decide if members wanted to expand the remit of the Patriot batteries.
Michael Stephens, a researcher based in Qatar for Britain’s Royal United Services Institute, said acceding to Alkhatib’s request would effectively put Nato at war with Damascus.
Nato’s current deployment of three Patriot missile batteries in southern Turkey is intended to be purely defensive, shielding Turkey from possible attack from Syria. The Patriots are designed to shoot down hostile missiles in mid-air.
Alkhatib, a Sunni Muslim cleric, took Syria’s seat at the summit for the first time despite announcing on Sunday that he would step down as leader of the Syrian National Coalition.
Behind him sat Ghassan Hitto, the Prime Minister of a provisional opposition government that plans to run rebel-held area, and fellow senior opposition official George Sabra.
Alkhatib made a blunt call on other Arab leaders to “fear God in dealing with your people” and free political prisoners – a departure from anodyne tradition at the League.
But he also criticised what he called Western failure to bring an end to the conflict, and said an influx of foreign Islamist fighters should not be used by the West as a pretext to deny the Syrian people meaningful help.
“I don’t know if the real issue has to do with whether he’s a foreigner or he has a beard,” he remarked, referring to trademark beards worn by Islamist fighters.
Alkhatib denounced the presence in Syria of Iranians and Russians he said were backing the Government.
In his opening speech as host, Qatar’s Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani urged the UN Security Council to stop the “oppression and repression of the people” in Syria, halt the bloodshed and “present those responsible for these crimes against their people to international justice”.
The UN says about 70,000 people have been killed in a conflict that began with peaceful anti-Assad protests and turned into an increasingly sectarian armed insurrection. The war in Syria has divided world powers, paralysing action at the Security Council.
The Arab world is also split: Saudi Arabia and Qatar are Assad’s biggest foes, and Iraq, Algeria and Lebanon the most resistant to calls for his removal.