CAIRO: Syrian dissidents were in Cairo on Saturday to lobby for recognition of an exile opposition council seeking the ouster of President Bashar Al-Assad, Egypt’s official MENA news agency reported.
The delegation planned to meet Egyptian activists and party representatives as 90 members of the Syrian National Council-led opposition met in Stockholm to strategize their struggle against Assad.
Yasser Najjar, a member of the delegation, told MENA that the delegation sought support for the recognition of the SNC, after which the exile group would hold a meeting to elect a leadership.
Ismail Al-Khalidi, a member of the council, told the news agency that "technical problems" had delayed such a meeting in Cairo, which he said would be convened "immediately after" the unspecified problems were resolved.
The SNC meeting comes as Assad’s security forces continue a crackdown against an uprising which the United Nations says has cost at least 2,900 lives since it erupted in mid-March.
The recently formed SNC includes most of Assad’s opponents, including the committees organizing protests on the ground, the Muslim Brotherhood as well as various Kurdish and Assyrian parties.
The council has been touring capital cities to rally support from the Arab and Western world.
