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Syrian Opposition Elects a U.S. Citizen as Prime Minister U.S. Citizen Is Picked as Syria Opposition’s Prime Minister
(about 1 hour later)
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Syria’s main opposition group elected a naturalized American citizen early Tuesday as the first prime minister of its planned interim government, hoping to establish administrative authority in areas of northern Syria that have been secured by insurgents fighting President Bashar al-Assad. BEIRUT, Lebanon — Syria’s main exile opposition coalition elected a naturalized Syrian-born American citizen early Tuesday to be the first prime minister of an interim Syrian government, charged with funneling aid to rebels inside Syria and offering an alternative to the rule of President Bashar al-Assad.
After a prolonged day of maneuvering and voting on Monday that lasted into the early-morning hours, representatives of the opposition coalition, meeting in Istanbul, chose Ghassan Hitto, 50, a former information technology executive, who emigrated from Syria many years ago and until recently had lived in Texas. Mr. Hitto was heavily involved in volunteer efforts to help Syrians whose lives had been upended by the uprising against Mr. Assad. By choosing Ghassan Hitto, 50, an information technology executive who lived in Texas until recently, the Syrian Opposition Coalition concluded months of contentious efforts to unite behind a leader, under pressure from the United States and its allies who demanded that the opposition set up clear chains of command as a condition of increasing aid to the rebels.
In voting televised live by al-Jazeera, Mr. Hitto won 35 votes, three more than his closest competitor, Asaad Mustafa, a former Syrian agriculture minister. Mr. Hitto, a relative unknown in opposition politics who rose to prominence recently through efforts to improve delivery of humanitarian aid, was far from a unanimous choice, beating out Assad Mustafa, a former agricultural minister under Mr. Assad’s father and predecessor, Hafez al-Assad, by just three votes.
Mr. Hitto is married to Suzanne Hitto, an American schoolteacher, and they have four children, who were all born in the United States. His eldest son, Obaida, has been working in Syria for the opposition and was injured there in a bombing, according to the opposition’s press office. He faces formidable challenges. Though rebels control a growing swath of northern Syria, Mr. Assad’s air force still rules the skies, so any attempt to govern from rebel-held areas risks the constant threat of airstrikes. And anti-government fighters and activists inside Syria, who have long complained that the coalition offered little concrete help and had little connection to the struggle on the ground, remain skeptical of any interim government based outside the country.
“A lot of the sons of this country had to leave for various reasons,” Mr. Hitto said in a prerecorded video that was posted on . “But Syrian people must carry their homeland in their heart wherever they go.” Even opposition leaders outside the country are divided on whether an interim government makes sense. Fahed al-Masri, a spokesman for the rebel Free Syrian Army’s unified command, questioned how a government could function when it controls little territory or funds yet will be held responsible for the fate of more than 1 million Syrian refugees and several times that number displaced inside the country.
He is expected to select other ministers in coming days for a government that is not yet physically in place in northern Syria. It was unclear whether all the rebel fighters united in their desire to oust Mr. Assad would recognize the interim government as a legitimate authority. “Welcome, government,” he said sardonically.
The announcement that Mr. Hitto had won came hours after Syrian warplanes attacked targets inside eastern Lebanon, the first time since the Syria conflict began that the military had used its air force to strike at suspected rebel hide-outs across the Lebanon border. The aerial assault was the third serious border episode tied to the Syria conflict in the past two weeks and underscored the threat to the country’s neighbors. Mr. Hitto has argued that forming a government would help keep Syria from slipping further into chaos.
The concept of a rival government run by the opposition inside Syrian territory has faced a mixed reaction in the United States, which has long demanded that Mr. Assad resign and that an independent transitional government acceptable to all sides replace him, as agreed to in a major conference on Syria in Geneva nine months ago. “There is always a possibility that this regime might fall suddenly,” he said, in a video posted on YouTube to announce his candidacy. “And we can’t avoid a political vacuum in the country and the ensuing chaos unless there is a transitional government.”
“That’s the road forward,” Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters on Monday in Washington. “But you have to have a President Assad who is willing to appoint that independent entity. And as of this moment, he is not.” The stakes are high. Many nations have recognized the coalition as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people, meaning that if Mr. Hitto succeeds in setting up a cabinet — far from a certainty given the fractiousness of the group — his government could try to claim Syria’s frozen state assets and other levers of power.
While the United States is not yet willing to provide weapons to the insurgency, as France and Britain have said they are prepared to do, Mr. Kerry reiterated the Obama administration’s position that “that the United States does not stand in the way of other countries that have made a decision to provide arms, whether it’s France or Britain or others.” Mr. Hitto ruled out negotiations with Mr. Assad, another blow to wavering efforts to find a political solution to the crisis.
Earlier on Monday, Lebanon’s National News Agency said in a brief dispatch that “warplanes affiliated with the Syrian Air Force” had attacked the Wadi al-Khayl Valley area, near the Lebanese border town of Arsal, without specifying whether they had caused casualties or damage. Mr. Hitto, with his many years spent in Texas, might seem like an unusual selection for a government struggling to establish street credibility with rebels — or for that matter, for an uprising facing allegations from Mr. Assad’s supporters that it is an American creation.
The mountainous area is known for its porous border. It is considered a haven for Syrian insurgents, and the civilian population there largely opposes Mr. Assad. But he said he could not resist getting involved — especially after his son Obaida, 25, sneaked off to Syria and joined rebel fighters to shoot videos, deliver humanitarian aid and spread word of their struggle. Mr. Hitto and his wife, Suzanne, an American schoolteacher, have four children, all born in the United States, where Mr. Hitto advocated for Muslim Americans after 9/11 as a representative of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
Syrian forces have occasionally fired across the Lebanon border in clashes with anti-Assad fighters, but had never before used warplanes to attack suspected rebel positions inside Lebanese territory. He traveled to the Middle East last fall to learn more and never went back. “I have a career back home that I’m in the process of destroying,” he said jovially.
There was no immediate explanation for the attack from the Syrian government. But it had warned on Thursday that its forces might fire into Lebanon because of what it called repeated incursions by terrorist gangs, the standard official Syrian terminology for the armed opposition to Mr. Assad. Mr. Hitto quickly came into close contact with American and other foreign officials in his role heading the humanitarian aid arm of the coalition, under Suhair Atassi, a coalition vice president and respected activist from Damascus.
Lebanon’s government, mindful of the long history of entanglements with its neighbor, has sought to remain neutral over the conflict in Syria. But sectarian tensions have been stoked by the conflict nonetheless. Frustrated with what he saw as anemic and disorganized international efforts to aid displaced Syrians, he hired internationally known aid consultants to do a survey that found the number of needy people in six Syrian provinces was more than 50 percent higher than United Nations estimates.

Hania Mourtada reported from Beirut, and Rick Gladstone from New York. Anne Barnard contributed reporting from Beirut, and Hala Droubi from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

At a recent lunch in Istanbul, he described himself as a zealous but diplomatic advocate trying to push international donors to give the coalition a bigger role in the delivery of aid. He said that “as an American” he wanted to see the United States do more to support the rebels.
Mr. Hitto, born in Damascus, left Syria in the early 1980s and earned an MBA at Indiana Wesleyan University. He is of Kurdish descent, which the council may have seen as a plus, since it has been criticized for not reaching out more to Syria’s minorities.
Some council members said Mr. Hitto was the choice of Syria’s Muslim Brotherhood, a group long banned and persecuted under Assad family rule, which plays a powerful role in the coalition. That could give him credibility among some in the Sunni Muslim-dominated uprising, but it also concerns some opposition members who feel the Brotherhood already wields disproportionate sway. Brotherhood leaders say they seek a civil, not Islamic, state, but some in the opposition worry that it will impose a religious agenda.
One activist from Mr. Assad’s minority Alawite sect said the brotherhood was “trying to stab the revolution once more.”
Another, Yamen Hseen, was less concerned about Mr. Hitto’s backers than his mission, saying an interim government running northern Syria smacked of dividing the country.
“A government formed abroad, consisting of people we don’t know, nor the mechanism by which they were picked,” he said. “It just makes me worry. I think it is a result of other countries’ demands and not the demands and needs of the people and the revolution.”
The announcement that Mr. Hitto had won came hours after Syrian warplanes fired at a sparsely populated area near the town of Arsal in eastern Lebanon, the first time the military used its air force to strike at suspected rebel hide-outs inside Lebanon. The Wadi al-Khayl Valley area is known for its porous border. It is considered a haven for Syrian insurgents, and the civilian population there largely opposes Mr. Assad.
The Syrian government warned on Thursday that it might fire into Lebanon because of incursions by rebel fighters.

Reporting was contributed by Hania Mourtada and Hwaida Saad from Beirut, Rick Gladstone from New York and Hala Droubi from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.