The selection of a prime minister by the National Coalition is a welcome move by the Syrian opposition. Despite the fact that some opposition leaders boycotted the vote because Ghassan Hitto lacks military experience, the new prime minister won a solid 35 out of 48 votes at the opposition's meeting Monday in Istanbul. Yet it may be that the Assad regime will also have welcomed the selection of a prime minister who will now appoint ministers to form a shadow Syrian government. Assad of course will not be greeting the development because it means that at last he has an opposition figure with whom he can negotiate. It was the lack of a central negotiating point that has been Assad's excuse during the last two years of bloodshed to continue the violence. Besides, the dictator knows full well that the time for any constructive negotiation that might have given him a role in Syria's future disappeared within the first few months of his barbarous attempt to crush his own people. However, the reason that Damascus is very probably pleased to see the National Coalition produce a shadow government is because of the job that it has been given. This is to assume the administration of the large swathes of Syrian territory, most particularly in the north of the country, that are now in the hands of rebel forces. The challenges facing Hitto and the team that is built around him are immense. First, there are over a million internally displaced refugees most of whom do not have the good fortune of having family or friends with whom to stay. Locals are doing their best to sustain these unfortunates but life is tough for them as well. They are emerging from a harsh winter, food is short and water and power are often intermittent, if they are available at all. The Hitto administration will therefore have to coordinate with the international community to ensure that everything that can be done to ease the plight of the people in liberated Syria is undertaken. But here is the reason that Assad and his people are probably rubbing their hands with glee. Rebel-held areas are all controlled by forces of the Free Syrian Army which has a commander in Gen. Salim Idris. Yet within the FSA is a patchwork of militias, by no means all of whom are prepared to take orders from Idris. They are therefore no more likely to listen to Hitto's administration, when he seeks their cooperation in reorganizing civil society. Militias whose men have fought and died to wrest territory from the regime are now perfectly content to run their particular liberated area the way they see fit, using it as a base from which to press Assad's forces further. If they do not wish to allow Hitto's administrators in, they have the guns to enforce their decision. A look at Libya today, two years after the overthrow of Gaddafi, demonstrates how difficult it is to persuade heavily armed militiamen to give way to official security forces and the elected government. Syria's rebels are still in a life and death struggle. If this patchwork of militia units cannot be persuaded to acknowledge the rebel government's authority, then Hitto and the wider National Coalition face humiliation in the eyes of ordinary Syrians as well as in those of the international community. This will be a cause for rejoicing among Assad and his cronies.
