Opposition has seat at Arab summit

Syria’s opposition took over the country’s seat for the first time at an Arab summit Tuesday in a diplomatic triumph marred by severe divisions in the ranks of the Western-backed opposition alliance.

The opposition’s ascension to representing the country at the summit in Qatar, a key backer of those fighting to topple President Bashar Assad, demonstrated the extent of the regime’s isolation two years into a ferocious civil war that the U.N. says has killed an estimated 70,000 people.

In Damascus, the government on Tuesday blasted the Arab League’s decision, portraying it as a selling-out of Arab identity to please Israel and the United States.

Associated Press