Christian to lead Syrian Opposition

The opposition Syrian National Council (SNC) has elected George Sabra, a leading secular Christian opposition figure, for a six-month term as its leader following discussions in Doha, Qatar. 

Farouq Tayfour, a senior member of the Muslim Brotherhood, was elected his vice president.

Sabra was one of two candidates that the SNC's executive council chose from in a ballot counted in front of reporters and council members. In his first statement as SNC chief, Sabra on Friday vowed to "work with other components of the Syrian opposition to accelerate the fall of [President Bashar al-Assad's] criminal regime".

The SNC has been vying to keep its leading role in the conflict and has come under US pressure to unify with other groups opposed to Assad.

Earlier on Friday, the umbrella group elected 11 members to sit on its executive committee, having already elected a 41-member secretariat.

Sabra, born in Qatana in the Damascus Suburbs governorate, is a leftist opposition figure and a leading member of the Syrian Democratic People's Party. He was arrested several times by Assad's government.

"We hope that these free and transparent elections will be a model for free elections in Syria," Sabra told the AFP news agency, stressing that the new executive represents all sectors of society, including for the first time the tribes.

SNC representatives voiced reservations about the initiative, based on a proposal tabled by prominent dissident Riad Seif with apparent US support.

George Sabra said his election showed that the SNC was not sectarian, and he appealed for more weapons to help overthrow President Bashar al-Assad.

The SNC was discussing a plan to merge with other groups to form a wider anti-Assad bloc, but it failed to agree terms and will meet again on Saturday.

The US and the Gulf states, which fund the SNC, want the merger.

The SNC had been due to make a decision on Friday, but internal wrangling forced it to ask for an extra 24 hours.

The proposed unified group, tentatively called the Syrian National Initiative, is intended to merge disparate military and political groups to form a credible alternative to Assad's government.

Activists and monitors estimated that more than 36,000 people have been killed in a long-running uprising against his rule.

On Friday, the UN said 11,000 Syrians had fled across the border in the previous 24 hours.

According to Turkish media, many of those who fled to Turkey were deserters from the Syrian armed forces.

Sabra said he had just one demand of the international community: "To stop the bloodbath and help the Syrian people chase out this bloody regime by providing us with weapons."