The leader of Syria’s opposition Syrian National Coalitio will visit China on Tuesday, sources have said.
Ahmed Jarba, who received the invitation from China’s foreign minister to visit Beijing, is trying to build more ties with Bashar Assad’s main ally China, especially after a pragmatic statement issued by China calling for a transitional period in Syria, hours after the Syrian presidential elections ended early June, analysts said.
The observers believe that recent statement by U.S. President Barack Obama regarding the moderate armed opposition will undermine Jarba’s efforts since the world leader is not convinced by them.
The security vacuum in the Middle East that has allowed an extremist group to advance through regions of Iraq and Syria would have opened up regardless of whether the United States had decided last year to back moderate rebel forces in war-torn Syria, President Obama said during an interview with "CBS This Morning" host Norah O'Donnell.
"I think this notion that somehow there was this ready-made moderate Syrian force that was able to defeat Assad is simply not true, and, you know, we have spent a lot of time trying to work with a moderate opposition in Syria," the president said in the interview taped Friday.
Translated and edited by The Syrian Observer
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