Syrian opposition gets 8 new members

After convening in Istanbul for five consecutive days, eight new members were brought into the Syrian National Coalition's umbrella; a move to expand the opposition party ahead of participating in the upcoming "Geneva 2 Conference." The coalition spokesman - also a member of key bloc the Syrian National Council - Khaled Al-Saleh gave a press conference announcing the joining of eight new members among whom were Michel Kilo, a veteran liberal opposition figure, and Farah Al-Atassi and Jamal Sulaiman, prominent opposition figures. Al-Saleh did not confirm, however, the coalition's participation in next month's Geneva conference in his remarks to the press. The opposition will continue convening in Istanbul to discuss critical issues such as election of a new president of the coalition, the expansion of the coalition to embrace new members from different opposition groups, and the fate of the interim government led by Ghassan Hitto. The Geneva 2 Conference is a US-Russia peace initiative to end the Syrian conflict. Russia and the United States reached an agreement in Moscow on May 7 to convene an international conference on Syria, which would serve as a follow-up to an earlier Geneva meeting held in June 2012.