PARIS: President Francois Hollande said yesterday that France, the only Western country to officially recognise Syria’s new opposition National Coalition, planned to let the group appoint an ambassador
in Paris.
The post of ambassador to Paris is to be filled by Monzir Makhous, an academic, although it was unclear if this would happen before the transitional government was formed. The promise came after talks here between Hollande and coalition leader Ahmed Moaz
Al Khatib during which the Syrian repeated that his coalition would move quickly to build a broad-based government of technocrats to rival the regime of President Bashar Al Assad.
More than 39,000 people have died since a popular uprising against Assad erupted 20 months ago, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
AFP
