Burhan Ghilyon, one of the main opposition figures abroad The Syrian opposition grouped all of its political factions under one roof when it announced on Sunday the formation of the National Unity Council. The Paris-based Burhan Ghilyon , one of the main opposition figures abroad, announced the formation of the council in Turkey after meetings there.
“The Syrian Council is open to all Syrians. It is an independent group personifying the sovereignty of the Syrian people in their struggle for liberty,” Ghilyon said.
The newly formed council rejected foreign intervention but asked for U.N. articles that would protect civilians in the country. It has also vowed to push for the creation of a democratically election civilian state and to fulfill the aspiration and goals of the Syrian revolution that started six months ago.
Opposition council officials said that their unity represents all opposition outside the country. They added that they were not in favor of dismantling the Syrian army.
Ghilyon said that peaceful means are the only solutions to the conflict in Syria.
Syrian soldiers have taken control of most of the town of Rastan from deserters and gunmen, an activist said on Saturday, after the most prolonged armed clashes of the six-month uprising against President Bashar al-Assad.
Rami Abdel-Rahman, head of the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said a force of 250 tanks was sent to the region on Friday and the army was deployed across 80 percent of Rastan.
Communication with the town of 40,000 people, 180 km (110 miles) north of Damascus, was difficult but Abdel-Rahman said a resident who managed to escape early on Saturday reported heavy gunfire throughout the night.
Syria says it is fighting terrorists there. The state news agency said on Friday seven soldiers and police were killed in the operation but had succeeded in inflicting \"big losses on the armed terrorist groups\".
\"Five civilians and six military and security agents have been killed today in the village of Kafar Zita during clashes between soldiers and agents on one side and deserters on the other,\" the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
\"Eight civilians were killed Friday in Homs province\" by security force fire, added the Britain-based watchdog.
Much of the violence was in Rastan, about 180 kilometres (120 miles) from Damascus and a gateway to the north, where battles have raged since Tuesday between the army and deserters who refuse to fire on protesters.
The Observatory, citing a local activist, said an army officer was shot dead by pro-regime gunmen \"for refusing to go to Rastan as ordered.\"
Activists also reported protests in other locations including 10,000 people in Palmyra (Tadmur) in central Syria, as well as thousands in Hama, also in the centre, Idlib in the northwest and Zabadani just north of Damascus.
Security forces opened fire against protesters, activists said, without indicating the number of casualties.
Venezuela\'s President Hugo Chavez on Saturday reiterated his support for embattled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, calling them his \"brothers.\"
The Venezuelan leader said he had spoken by telephone late Friday with Assad, who according to him is fighting \"an aggression from Yankee imperialists and their European allies.\"
\"Our solidarity is with the Syrian people, with President Bashar,\" he added.
“I spoke yesterday with the president of Syria, our brother President Bashar al-Assad,\" Chavez said in a televised ceremony on Saturday to present low-cost household appliances for Venezuelans.
\"From here, we send our solidarity to the Syrian people, to President Bashar. They are resisting imperial aggression, the attacks of the Yankee empire and its European allies.\"
Foreign ministers of the eight member states in the leftist ALBA bloc plan to travel to Syria to prevent what Chavez called \"the madness of war by US President Barack Obama and his imperial allies to destroy the Syrian people.\"
The United Nations says 2,700 people have been killed in President Bashar al-Assad\'s crackdown since the mostly peaceful protests erupted in March, inspired by Arab revolts which have toppled three North African rulers and rattled leaders across the Middle East.