Obama endorses National Coalition as \'the legitimate representative\' for Syrian people Syrian National Coalition is set to receive formal political recognition at a conference in Morocco this morning. Government delegates from US, France, Britain and the Gulf countries will meet at the \"Friends of the Syrian People\" conference in Marrakech, to discuss their backing for the opposition group.
The meeting comes after US President Barack Obama joined France, Britain, Turkey and the Gulf Cooperation Council in backing the Coalition group.
Obama told ABC News, \"We have made a decision that the Syrian opposition coalition is now inclusive enough, is reflective and representative enough of the Syrian population, that we consider them the legitimate representative of the Syrian people.\"
He also declared fears that al-Qaeda-linked militant group Al-Nusra Front could hijack the revolution, as a terrorist group. \"There is a small element of those that oppose the Assad regime, that in fact are affiliated with Al-Qaeda in Iraq and we have designated them, Al-Nusra, as a terrorist organisation,\" Obama added.
Inside Syria, there were reports of more violence. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed bomb attacks in the village of Aqrab in the central province of Hama killed or wounded at least 125 civilians. \"We cannot know whether the rebels were behind this attack, but if they were, this would be the largest-scale revenge attack against Alawites,\" members of a Shiite sect in Sunni-majority Syria, said Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman.
Today\'s meeting comes as rebel forces in Syria continue their push against the regime of Bashar al-Assad, and get ever closer to Damascus.