SNC chief Abdel Basset Sayda also denounced the failure of the international community to act to end "massacres" being committed by forces loyal to the regime of
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad
Leveler of Latakia...
His remarks were made during a meeting of the SNC general assembly in the Qatari capital Doha, as the United States heaped pressure on the opposition to form a wider structure.
Sayda said the SNC would take part in a broad opposition meeting on Thursday called by host Qatar and the Arab League
...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing...
, but insisted on a leading role for the council.
"We will attend the meeting with an open heart and mind. But we would like to stress from the start the need to keep the SNC as the cornerstone of the Syrian opposition," said the SNC chairman.
"We think that any attempt to target the SNC, whether intentionally or not, will prolong the crisis," he added.
Opposition figures meeting in Doha are expected to discuss an initiative by leading dissident Riad Seif to unite all Syrian groups opposed to Assad.
The proposal, which seems to enjoy U.S. support but has encountered reservations from some SNC members, will top the agenda of the broader meeting on Thursday.
But the former head of the SNC, Burhan Ghalioun, feared that Thursday's meeting was aimed to abolish the council which seems to have fallen from grace in Washington.
"The council rejects taking part in a framework that aims to kill it off," Ghalioun told AFP.
"We are working to turn the (forthcoming) meeting from a conference aimed at killing the SNC to a conference that would continue the work started by the council," he said.