The members of the Syrian opposition’s Higher Negotiations Committee elected former Syrian prime minister Riyad Hijab as General Coordinator during its first meeting on Thursday in the Saudi capital, Riyadh.
Al-Souria Net has learned that former president of the Syrian National Coalition Ahmed al-Jarba competed with Hijab over the position, in which Hijab won 24 of the 34 votes.
The Higher Negotiations Committee consists of 34 members, 11 of them representatives of the military factions, nine from the Syrian National Coalition, as well as eight independent figures, and six from the National Coordination Committee. The unified opposition body emerged from the meetings hosted in Riyadh between December 9-10.
By appointing Hijab as General Coordinator, the Committee has completed one of the first tasks on its agenda, and is expected to discuss naming the 15 members who will form the negotiation delegation for talks with representatives of the Assad regime in Geneva.
This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
