Erstellt am: 12. 11. 2012 - 15:25 Uhr

Syrian Opposition 2.0

Reality Check: Syrian opposition groups forge coalition; US & Middle East policy; Petraeus scandal; BBC shambles; "The Office" on stage

Syria - a new opposition

Could this be a turning point in the civil war in Syria? The opposition has a new leadership, forged at a meeting in Doha under pressure from Arab governments and the West. For months the experts have been highlighting the fact that the opposition to the regime of Bashar al Assad is a disparate collection of religious and tribal groups and rebel factions. The first attempt to unite these different groups under a single leadership resulted in the Syrian National Council, but the SNC has come to be seen as ineffective and bogged down with personal disputes.

After days of wrangling in Qatar, representatives of groups including rebel fighters, veteran dissidents and ethnic and religious minorities agreed to join a new assembly that can form a government-in-exile. They then unanimously elected a reformist Damascus cleric, Mouaz al-Khatib, as its president. The new opposition umbrella organisation will be known as “The Syrian National Coalition for Opposition and Revolutionary Forces”.

“Today in Doha is the first time the different factions of the Syrian opposition are united in one body,” said Riyad Farid Hijab, a former Syrian prime minister and the highest-level defector from the Damascus government. “So we ask the international community to recognize the Syrian opposition as the representative of the Syrians.” Gathering that recognition, as well as support, is the first job for Mouaz al-Khatib, who on Monday flew to Cairo to seek the Arab League's blessing.

Rime Allaf, Middle East expert and Fellow at the UK think tank Chatham House, explains why Mouaz al-Khatib was chosen, and the job that lies ahead:

US & The Palestinians
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has told President Barack Obama that he will be seeking a Palestinian upgrade to that of "observer state" at the United Nations. What does Obama's re-election mean for US policy in terms of Middle East peace making? Aaron David Miller, Vice-President and distinguished scholar at the Wilson Center in Washington, has worked as an adviser on middle eastern issues for republican and democratic secretaries of state:

David Petraeus
The downfall of the CIA Director David Petraeus and the intrigue in Washington surrounding his departure. Correspondent Priscilla Huff on the line from Washington:

Trouble at the BBC
The resignation of the Director-General and other senior figures. What's going wrong and what does the future hold for the world's best-known broadcaster? The thoughts of Charlie Beckett from POLIS at the London School of Economics:

The Office
The well known British TV show which has been reincarnated on many TV stations around the world is now being shown in Czech - in its first stage version. Rob Cameron reports from Prague:

Subscribe to the Reality Check podcast and get the whole programme after the show