Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Hitto elected 'provisonal' prime minister of Syrian opposition

Syrian opposition elects Ghassan Hitto PM of interim govt
Hitto talks to the press. (Xinhua)

The opposition Syrian National Coalition chose Western-educated former businessman Ghassan Hitto as provisional prime minister in a vote on Tuesday at a meeting in Istanbul. Several senior coalition members, including tribal leader Ahmad Jarba and veteran opposition campaigners Walid al-Bunni and Kamal al-Labwani withdrew from the session before the vote to protest what they described as a hasty foreign-backed push to chose Hitto. Two eralier atamopts to elect a prime minister failed.
Hitto, who according to a Reuters witness received 35 votes of around 50 cast by coalition members, will be in charge of forming a government to fill a power vacuum in Syria arising from a two-year-long revolt against President Bashar al-Assad. Hitto, who has a grade in computer science,  has been living in the US for a long time.

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