Arab states "want Syrian opposition to unite"

TUNIS, Feb 17 (Reuters) - Arab countries will

encourage the Syrian opposition to unite before they formally

recognise them as a government-in-waiting, the foreign minister

of Tunisia, which is hosting a meeting on Syria next week, said

on Friday.

A year into the revolt against Syria's President Bashar

al-Assad, the Syrian National Council (SNC) has emerged as the

international voice of the uprising but has yet to show a real

command over grassroots activists and an armed insurgency.

Doubts over the SNC's authority inside Syria have been

brought into focus by a Feb. 24 meeting in Tunisia of the

"Friends of Syria", organised by the Arab League to try to build

international momentum against Assad.

The SNC hopes that recognition from Arab countries would

crown it as the opposition government-in-waiting, just as

foreign recognition of Libya's National Transitional Council

last year helped rebels who eventually ousted Muammar Gaddafi.

But the SNC controls no territory in Syria and not all Arab

countries are convinced that it represents the full spectrum of

Syria's opposition.

Asked if there was a move towards SNC recognition, Tunisian

Foreign Minister Rafik Abdesslem said: "There is a move towards

supporting dialogue among the different Syrian factions so that

it is the effective representative of the Syrian revolution and

representative of all parts of the Syrian people.

"If this representation happens and this level of Syrian

national consensus is reached then we would have no objection to

recognising the SNC ... I don't think this position is specific

to Tunisia, but one that includes Arab countries and many

countries," he told a news conference.

NO MILITARY INTERVENTION

While senior SNC officials and independent Syrian opposition

figures have said they will attend the Tunis meeting, Abdesslem

said he did not expect the SNC to be officially represented.

"There will probably not be an official participation. It

has not been decided but it is likely that they will not be

officially represented at the conference," he said.

"There is a request to recognize the SNC and there is

another view that says we open the channels of dialogue with all

the Syrian opposition sides."

Tunisia, the birthplace of the Arab Spring uprisings, has

been strongly critical of Assad. Earlier this month, it withdrew

its recognition of the Syrian government and expelled Syria's

diplomats from the country but has stopped short of inviting the

SNC to replace them.

The expulsions have drawn criticism from some Tunisian

opposition parties as well as unions and civil society groups

and some have opposed the government's decision to host the

Syria conference, fearing it will be used as a platform to

launch an eventual Libya-style military campaign in Syria.

NATO led the campaign in Libya, acting under a United

Nations mandate to protect civilians and France has recently

floated the idea of setting up "humanitarian corridors" to ferry

relief to towns bearing the brunt of Assad's crackdown.

Abdesslem said the conference would not take any decisions

that undermined Syria's sovereignty or territorial integrity and

that any resolution to the Syrian crisis would be Arab-led.

"We will not ask NATO to enter Syria for a key reason. We

have said repeatedly and we repeat again that Tunisia will not

be a party to any military intervention," he said.

"The objective from this conference is not to copy the

Libyan example or any other examples. The main objective of this

conference is to send a strong message to the Syrian authorities

to stop the killing of civilians."

(Editing by Andrew Roche)