Syrian opposition groups fighting the Syrian government announced on Wednesday they no longer recognize foreign-backed main opposition National Coalition, saying the group had “failed”.
Syrian opposition groups fighting the Syrian government announced on Wednesday they no longer recognize foreign-backed main opposition National Coalition, saying the group had “failed”.
The video statement signed by nearly 70 groups comes after a group of key rebel groups in the north of the country announced their rejection of the National Coalition in late September.
"Having seen the failure of the political groups that claim to represent the opposition and the revolutionary groups... we leaders of the military and revolutionary groups in the southern provinces withdraw our recognition from any political group that claims to represent us," a spokesman for the group said in the video.
The spokesman referred specifically to "the Coalition and its leadership".
Nearly 70 groups signed on to the statement, which comes after armed groups in northern Syria said last month they also rejected the Coalition.
Filmed in an unnamed desert area, the video statement shows militants holding up their weapons. Behind them is a banner with the so-called Free Syrian Army logo.
Speaking to AFP, the FSA's political and media coordinator Louay Muqdad stressed the statement was not a rejection of the FSA force headed by General Selim Idriss.
"We saw the statement, and we will be in contact with the leaders of these groups," Muqdad said.
"As for our brothers in the Coalition, they need to listen carefully to the voice of the people inside Syria, to those who are paying with their blood in Syria, to the revolutionaries on the ground," he said.
"The revolutionaries' demands must not be taken lightly," he added.
Recently, fierce clashes erupted between the ISIL, Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Nusra Front terrorist group and the so-called free Syrian army in the wake of disputes on power and control sharing over areas not reclaimed so far by the Syrian army.
