Syrian Opposition Must Prove It Can Handle Foreign Funds
In the aftermath of its latest meeting with international supporters, the opposition Syrian National Council faces a crucial test: whether it can spend millions of dollars in foreign aid efficiently and without corruption.
In the aftermath of its latest meeting with international supporters, the opposition Syrian National Council (SNC) faces a crucial test: whether it can spend millions of dollars in foreign aid efficiently and without corruption.
Syria analysts and SNC members concede that the council has been slow to organize behind a single leader or vision to govern Syria once the brutal dictatorship of President Bashar al-Assad falls. But they also fault the United States and the other 80 plus members of the so-called Friends of Syria for failing to act more decisively against a regime that has killed more than 9,000 of its own people in the past year.
“It’s easy to blame everything on the fragmentation of the Syrian opposition,” said Murhaf Jouejati, an SNC member and professor at the National Defense University in Washington. “We also have a lot of fragmentation in the international community.”
Jouejati praised the United States, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other countries that have pledged a total of $300 million in aid to the Syrian opposition and to other Syrians displaced by the conflict, calling this “a step in the right direction but not nearly enough to stop the killing machine.”
