Opposition activist to head \'Syrian government\'

A Syrian coalition of “independent revolutionaries” have announced that Haytham al-Maleh, an opposition activist, has been tasked with forming a government in exile based in Cairo. “I have been tasked with leading a transitional government,” Maleh said, adding that he will begin consultations “with the opposition inside and outside” the country. Maleh, a conservative Muslim, said he was named by a Syrian coalition of “independents with no political affiliation.” More than 20,000 people have been killed in Syria since a revolt against President Bashar al-Assad’s rule began in March 2011, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. There is no way to independently verify the figure, while the UN has stopped keeping count. There have been repeated calls on Assad to step down. When that happens, “we don’t want to find ourselves in a political or administrative vacuum,” Maleh said. “This phase calls for cooperation from all sides,” he said. Maleh, 81, is a Syrian lawyer and human rights activist who has spent several years in prison in his homeland.