The routine news coming out of Syria about daily death tolls was recently overshadowed by footage of the newly appointed prime minister of the provisional government, Ghassan Hitto, touring the so-called liberated areas no longer under regime control. Soon after the tour was over, Hitto went back to his headquarters in Istanbul. Making such tours might prove his easiest task in the light of the daunting challenges facing the provisional government on the ground. As the crisis in Syria enters its third year, the most important achievement of the opposition has been the appointment of an interim government and prime minister to run areas no longer under the control of the regime led by Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad. However, while the move has been made to avoid the danger of a power vacuum in the country, key challenges are still likely to cripple Hitto's government in the light of factors such as the balance of power on the ground, an opposition that has been plagued by divisions, and an unenthusiastic international community. The US's position has underlined such challenges, with former US ambassador to Syria Robert Ford telling the foreign affairs committee in Congress that the formation of an interim government for Syria under opposition leadership “will not affect the US-Russian effort to form a transitional government whose main task would be to dialogue between the regime and the opposition”. Ford's words suggested that the US, and most likely its European partners too, viewed the formation of Hitto's government to be a temporary measure, with it being assigned administrative tasks and supervisory roles in the liberated areas, whereas the genuine transitional government would be the fruit of a deal between the Russians and the Americans and would be entrusted with the more important task of negotiating with the regime over arrangements after the fall of Al-Assad from power. A report by the Doha-based Arab Centre for Research and Policy Studies issued last week suggested that the move was meant to be “a tool to pressure the Al-Assad regime to accept the principle of negotiations to implement the Geneva Agreement”. “The French and British endeavour to lift the European ban on arming the opposition is part of this strategy, which aims to put more pressure on the regime to accept a political solution by modifying the balance of military forces on the ground,” the report concluded. Following his appointment, Hitto promised to submit his government's plans within two weeks and to appoint a cabinet of 10 ministers. His first move towards achieving this was to appoint a defence minister, a sensitive post since the opposition Free Syrian Army (FSA), which controls large areas of liberated territory, had initially refused to recognise the Hitto government. Hitto's decision to allow the FSA to name the defence minister has been viewed as a concession to secure its loyalty since the FSA is a key player on the ground. Two key tasks will be assigned to the defence minister — controlling the armed opposition brigades inside the country and being responsible for the distribution of weapons. While Hitto may have won his battle of legitimacy with the FSA for the time being, there is near consensus among Syrian opposition figures that the greatest challenge facing his government will be to work inside Syria and not run the affairs of government from Istanbul. “Working on the ground and living the day-to-day tragedies people are going through is crucial for this government's legitimacy,” Haitham Al-Malih, a veteran opposition figure, said. Others echoed this view, with one activist saying that “he should move his government to Syria and have a Syrian government on Syrian soil.” Naturally, the consequences of any such move would be huge, since a location inside Syria would make the government the target of regime strikes. According to Moez Al-Khatib, the head of the opposition Syrian National Coalition (SNC), the new government will operate from inside Syria and will not have its headquarters abroad. “All the ministers will have their offices inside the country,” he told the Saudi daily Al-Watan. Further challenges facing the government include working with the local coordination committees that have a better picture of what is happening on the ground and abandoning the hard line adopted by the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood regarding defected elements from the regime. This may mean that Hitto will need to include former members of the regime who are willing to negotiate in the new government. Securing the resources to provide basic amenities for refugees inside and outside of Syria is another obstacle facing Hitto, and this will need to be coupled with what one activist described as the need to act with transparency regarding the funding the government received from international donors. The activist suggested that Hitto should submit a monthly report on where this money goes as an example of the probity of the new Syria. Meanwhile, the Arab League's recent move to grant Syria's seat to the interim government during the Arab Summit meeting in Doha was the last in a series of moves spearheaded by the Gulf states to delegitimise Al-Assad, but it also triggered debate about who now represents the Syrian people. The Doha Declaration urged the international community and regional organisations to recognise the SNC as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people and its authority to represent Syria at international forums. However, the UN quickly responded by turning down this request, saying that representation was for governments and not for other bodies. The UN response came as a slap on the face to Qatar, which has been working hard behind the scenes to unseat Bashar Al-Jaafari, the present Syrian representative, and to give the seat to a figure from the opposition. The Syrian opposition, with the help of the Gulf states, is also likely to claim Syria's seat in the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC). Thus far, Qatar has been the only Gulf state to hand the Syrian embassy in its country to the opposition, and other Gulf states have not followed suit. One of the key obstacles in the face of any settlement is the fate of Al-Assad himself, a complex dilemma that is hampering efforts for a political settlement, with the West continuing to drag its feet as long as the present chaos in the country remains within “acceptable limits”. Rumours of the use of chemical weapons have rung alarm bells in the West, and they could yet trigger international intervention. One scenario suggests that in the event of continuing failures to reach a political settlement, the West, led by the United States, might accelerate efforts towards military intervention. However, the bleak scenarios peddled in the western press do not conform to the statements aired by Moez Al-Khatib, who resigned from his post two weeks ago but was persuaded to continue and has said he would be willing to engage Al-Assad in dialogue. In an interview earlier this week on Dubai TV, Al-Khatib, who met Al-Assad during Friday prayer in a Damascus mosque, said that he would be ready to hold a televised debate with al-Assad that would be “watched by all Syrians and in which all key and sensitive issues would be addressed”. As yet, there has been no response from the regime. Syrian activists place high expectations on Hitto's government presenting a list of demands that will lay the groundwork for post-Al-Assad Syria and save the revolution from some of the mistakes committed in its name, particularly in relation to alleged human rights abuses by the rebels. But in order for such expectations to be achieved, Hitto needs a cohesive and united opposition to support him, even as, if the past is anything to go by, cohesion is not a trait of the Syrian opposition, which has long been dogged by division. The most recent form of this has been the war of words between FSA leaders and the Muslim Brotherhood, with the former accusing the latter of exercising its hegemony over the opposition and the Brotherhood responding by saying that it controls only 10 per cent of the seats in the new cabinet. It is within a context of this sort that the new interim government prime minister will have to operate and make quick advances on the ground.
