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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Syria-based rebels slam exiled FSA leader |
| 2012-05-31 |
| yria-based insurgents fighting the regime of President Bashar Assad on Thursday took to task their exiled leadership, in a stark show of divisions within the armed opposition. "Nobody has the right to issue press releases, take decisions, or speak about operations in the Free Syrian Army's name, except for the FSA command inside Syria," the group's spokesman Colonel Kassem Saadeddine told AFP. He was reacting to a statement by Turkey-based FSA chief Colonel Riyadh al-Asaad who earlier denied that armed rebels gave the Syrian regime an 0900 GMT Friday deadline to observe a UN-backed peace plan to end the violence. A putative truce came into force on April 12, brokered by UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan, but it has been systematically violated since. "There is no ultimatum, but we hope Annan announces the plan's failure, so that we do not take the blame for any future operations against the regime," Asaad told Al-Jazeera television. An FSA statement issued from inside Syria earlier had given the Syrian government until noon on Friday to observe the Annan plan. "If the Syrian regime does not meet the deadline by Friday midday, the command of the Free Syrian Army announces that it will no longer be tied by any commitment to the Annan plan ... and our duty will be ... to defend civilians," a FSA statement said. Saadeddine, speaking to AFP via Skype from Syria, said: "From now on, all decisions will be taken from inside Syria. |
| Posted by:tipper |