Syria opposition chief seeks to unite dissidents

Syria's exiled opposition chief told AFP he wants to pull together the country's divided dissidents to end the nearly five-year bloodbath, before meeting the French president for the first time yesterday.

Khaled Khoja, who has headed the main National Coalition since January, also blamed President Bashar al-Assad for the lightning rise of jihadist groups who have taken over large swathes of Syria and Iraq.

Softening the coalition's previous refusal to work with Damascus-tolerated opposition groups, 50-year-old Khoja said he wants "a common ground" with other dissidents, and to "establish a new framework for the Syrian opposition."

The interview comes less than a week after the exiled coalition met in Paris with the domestic National Coordination Committee for Democratic Change.

For the first time in Syria's war, the coalition and the NCCDC agreed on a draft roadmap for future negotiations with Assad's regime.

In Paris, the two main opposition bodies agreed that the main goal of any future peace talks would be "to establish a civil, democratic, pluralistic system" in Syria.

Khoja said the meeting was "a very good start" and that he will work with all opponents seeking to "establish a new Syria based on collective rights and individual freedom".