Syrian opposition picks Ahmad Assi Jarba as new leader

New President of the Syrian opposition National Coalition, Ahmad Assi Jarba Damascus – George Al Shami Arab and International community welcomed the election of Ahmad Assi Jarba as President of the Syrian opposition National Coalition following a run-off vote held in Istanbul on Saturday.
US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki later said: "The United States welcomes the July 6 election of Syrian Coalition President  Ahmad Assi Jarba and looks forward to working with him and his team. We hope to make progress together with President Jarba to prevent the total collapse of Syria into chaos and rebuild its social fabric. A united opposition is essential to achieve a negotiated political solution in which Bashar Assad steps down, and a new transition government leads all Syrians to dignity, freedom and hope for the future."
Psaki said the United States was looking "to President Jarba and the new leaders to reach out to all Syrian communities and bring greater unity and further organisation to the Syrian Coalition.
Among the rebels' Western sympathisers, France was swift to congratulate Jarba on his win, saying that his election reinforced the coalition as "the legitimate representative of the Syrian people".
For his part, British Foreign Secretary William Hague welcomed the election of a former political prisoner to head the main Western-backed Syrian opposition group.
Hague said Britain looks forward to working with Jarba in the push to "secure an end to the bloody civil war."
"We look forward to working closely with him and the new leadership team to help the Syrian opposition promote its vision of a free, democratic and pluralist Syria that defends the rights of all Syrians," William Hague added.
Qatar also welcomed the elections conducted by National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces in Istanbul.
A source from Qatar's Foreign Ministry to Qatar News Agency (QNA) said: "Qatar backs any democratic approach of leadership change and looks forward to working with the presidency of the coalition."
The source also called on members of the coalition and Syrian opposition to work together with the new leadership, adding that the current stage requires "unification of ranks" and "coordination of positions to face the injustice of the Syrian regime and its agents."
The source stressed that the despicable crimes committed by the Syrian regime and its agents in Homs and elsewhere, as well as its use of chemical weapons means that the coalition must have strong coordination inside and outside Syria both at political and military levels.
The selection of a new chief had initially been mooted for the end of May but was postponed after eight days of talks were stalled by conflicting views on the future direction of the coalition and attempts by other countries in the region to influence the outcome.
Ahmad Assi Jarba was backed by 55 members of the 114-strong council at a meeting in Istanbul designed to unify the ranks. Born in 1969 in the north-eastern city of Qamishli, on the border with Turkey, Jarba is a Sunni Muslim whose work for the opposition involved convincing Arab and Western nations to arm the rebels.
Meanwhile, intense fighting in the central Syrian city of Homs has left 60 to 70 percent of a besieged rebel-held district damaged, destroyed or uninhabitable, a monitoring group said on Sunday. The estimate from British based organisation Syrian Observatory for Human Rights came nine days into an all-out assault by troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad on the rebel-held Khaldiyeh and Old City neighbourhoods, which have been under siege for more than a year.
On Sunday, new air strikes, tank shelling and rocket fire hit the city, said the Observatory.
"Sixty to 70 percent of buildings in Khaldiyeh are either totally destroyed, partially destroyed, or unsuitable for habitation," Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.
Homs is Syria's third-largest city, and tens of thousands of its residents have fled the fighting.