Free Syrian Army fighters are seen at the Menagh military airport in Aleppo’s countryside on January 25.

AFP/Damascus


The Syrian opposition appealed yesterday for hundreds of millions of dollars to step up the revolt against Bashar al-Assad, as the president asserted his forces had made “significant gains” in the conflict.
At an international meeting in Paris, the main opposition Syrian National Coalition (SNC) said it needs $500mn in funding to set up an alternative government.
“With a state and a society collapsing, it is the Islamist groups that could gain ground if we do not do what we have to do,” France’s Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius warned the meeting.
“This conference has to send a clear signal, (that) it has one concrete objective: give the Syrian National Coalition (SNC) the means to act.”
But the credibility of the opposition alliance has been damaged by mounting evidence that extremist Islamists are playing a central role in the campaign against Assad.
George Sabra, head of the SNC, the main body in the opposition coalition, said Assad’s opponents were desperately in need of cash and arms.
“We need a minimum of $500mn to be able to establish a government,” he said. “And we need weapons, weapons and more weapons.”
Arab and Western “Friends of Syria” agreed in December to provide a total of $145mn of support for the opposition, two-thirds of it from Saudi Arabia, but the money has yet to be delivered.
The SNC was created in November with its various components saying they would fight under a unified military command.
But some hardline groups have declined to join the coalition, saying their goal is the creation of an Islamic state to replace Assad’s regime.
A top humanitarian official also appealed for funding yesterday, warning that the UN will be forced to cut already reduced food rations to hundreds of thousands of Syrians unless a huge cash injection is found.
“We are putting it squarely to the donors, more cuts are likely,” humanitarian operations director John Ging said ahead of a donor conference in Kuwait tomorrow.
UN leader Ban Ki-moon will seek more than $1.5bn in new cash pledges at the Kuwait conference.
Assad, meanwhile, said his troops have gained the upper hand against rebels in the 22-month conflict and could win in “two weeks” should Turkey stop its support for insurgents, a Lebanese newspaper reported.
“The army has a very large lead on the ground and has achieved significant gains,” Al Akhbar quoted him as saying. “If the Turkish border was closed to tackle the smuggling of arms and militants, this matter would be resolved in only two weeks.”
On the ground, rebels yesterday took over one of four key suspension bridges in Deir al-Zor, which straddle the Euphrates river and connect the eastern city to Hasakeh province further north, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
“The bridge is important because it allows the army to send troops and supplies to Hasakeh,” Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said by phone.
Fighting also erupted in a southern district of Damascus, while the army bombed rebel positions on the capital’s outskirts, said the Observatory, which gave a toll of at least 61 people killed nationwide, including 23 civilians.
The UN says more than 60,000 people have been killed since the start of the conflict in March 2011.
On the international front, US President Barack Obama said in an interview published yesterday that he was wrestling with a decision on whether the US should get involved to resolve the Syrian conflict.