Syrian national coalition new president has no public support but US

The U.S. State Department has welcomed the election of a Saudi-linked opposition figure as the president of the so-called Syrian National Coalition.

The foreign-backed Syria opposition elected Ahmad Assi Jarba as its new president during its latest meeting in the Turkish city of Istanbul on Saturday. Jarba received 55 votes from the 114-member council.

“The United States welcomes the July 6 election of Syrian Coalition President Ahmed Assi al-Jarba, and looks forward to working with him and with his team,” spokesman Jennifer Psaki said in a statement, The Hill reports.

“We look to President Jarba and the new leaders to reach out to all Syrian communities and bring greater unity of purpose and further organization to the Syrian Coalition as the legitimate representatives of the Syrian people,” she said.

Jarba is an elder of the Shammar tribe whose members stretch across the Levant region, Iraq and the Arabian Peninsula. He has connections to Saudi Arabia, a country that has been supporting the militants in Syria.

Jabra’s election follows months of disputes that exposed the deep divisions between the foreign-backed militant groups and their supporters. The opposition coalition has been without a president since the former leader, Moaz al-Khatib, quit in April.

On June 14, U.S. President Barack Obama directed his administration to send weapons to militants fighting against the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Obama approved the plan after the White House claimed that the Syrian government had crossed Washington’s “red lines” by using chemical weapons against the militants.

Damascus has strongly rejected the allegation.

The United States is in the process of shipping weapons, including anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles, to Jordan to arm the militants in Syria.

The U.S. military has also been secretly training militant groups since November last year.

This comes as a recent poll conducted by the Pew Research Center showed that 70 percent of Americans said they were against arming the militants.