Key figures in new Syrian coalition

Muath Al Khatib: An Islamic preacher from Damascus who was detained several times since the uprising began on charges of supporting anti-government groups. He ran as an independent.

He was once the preacher in Damascus’ historic Ummayad Mosque and heads the Islamic Modernisation Group.

Al Khatib is not affiliated with any other Islamist group, is known as a moderate who has called for political pluralism and strongly opposes sectarian divisions among Syrians. He is said to retain a considerable following inside Syria.

Al Khatib has long promoted a liberal Islam tolerant of Syria’s Christian, Alawite and other minorities. Naming him as a president of the coalition could be a move to counter Muslim extremists who are gaining power among rebel groups.

Riad Saif: A member of the so-called ‘Damascus Declaration’ group — a coalition of pro-democracy activists that came into existence after Bashar Al Assad came to power in 2000.

Saif is one of the country’s most prominent opposition figures. In July 2010, he was released after years in jail for anti-government activities.

He was arrested for the first time in 2001 for criticising Al Assad and sentenced to five years in prison. He was re-arrested in January 2008 and sentenced to two-and-a-half years on charges of “weakening national sentiment” — a term used to mean carrying out anti-regime activities.

Syria had previously banned Saif from travel, a measure regularly taken against dissidents. In 2007, the US State Department urged Syrian authorities to allow him to leave the country to receive medical treatment.

Saif told the Associated Press in 2007 that refusing to allow him to seek treatment abroad for prostate cancer was “like being sentenced to a slow death”.

Suheir Al Atassi: He is an opposition activist who comes from the prominent Homsi political family that has had two presidents — Noor Eddine Al Atassi and Luay Al Atassi. Her father Jamal Eddine Al Atassi was a nationalist thinker who was involved in the founding of the Arab nationalist Bath party with Salah Bitar and Michel Aflaq.

Suheir leads the Atassi Forum for Dialogue, which was established in 2001 after the death of the father of the current Syrian president Bashar Al Assad, Hafez. This was marked by a period of political activism termed as the Damascus Spring.

In the recent past, Suheir had been called in for questioning by the authorities three times for her activism. She was detained by the authorities in March 2011 following a TV appearance.

She has called for a national dialogue with the Bath party, communists and the Muslim Brotherhood.