CAIRO (Reuters) – The head of the internationally recognized Syrian opposition body during the previous administration’s rule, said on Monday that the group has not received an invitation to the national dialogue announced by the current government.
No communication has been made with the new administration, Hadi al-Bahra, said in an interview with Saudi state-owned broadcaster Al Arabiya TV.
Syria’s de facto leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, said a day earlier that the national dialogue conference would include wide participation by Syrian society with votes on issues such as dissolving the parliament and the constitution.
The current administration has not announced a date for the announced dialogue yet.
Sharaa leads the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group which ousted former President Bashar al-Assad on Dec. 8. The group’s lightning campaign ended a 13-year civil war but has left a host of questions about the future of a multi-ethnic country where foreign states including Turkey and Russia have strong and potentially competing interests.
The internationally recognized Syrian national coalition, which used to operate from Turkey under Assad’s rule, was established in 2012 to overthrow the former administration.
Bahra told Al-Arabiya TV that he was back in Damascus and planning to work from there.
(Reporting by Jaidaa Taha and Menna Alaa El Din; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Sandra Maler)
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