LONDON - A former British diplomat with a reputation for championing underdogs has been hired by Syria's opposition coalition to help in its potentially uphill mission to persuade reluctant governments to do more to end the country's civil war.
Carne Ross, now head of Independent Diplomat, a New York-based consultancy, will advise the National Coalition of Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces on how to get its message across at a time of mounting concern that the two-year rebellion is being hijacked by Al Qaeda-linked Islamists.
The former Foreign Office high flier came to prominence in 2004 when he quit over the Blair government's massaging of intelligence to justify its participation in the invasion of Iraq the previous year.
Since then, the non-profit advisory group that he established has fought the cause of marginalized peoples as they struggled to get their voices heard in international forums, including those from Kosovo, Somaliland and Western Sahara.
Mr. Ross, whose most recent book shows how ordinary people will take power and change politics in the 21st century, also helped the Occupy Wall Street Movement in 2011 to come up with ideas for an alternative banking system.
His latest project involves advising a coalition that has gained widespread international recognition as the representative of the Syrian people since it was established last November to try to rally the country's disparate opposition factions.
However, the leadership has been struggling to create a united front from exiled politicians and a plethora of armed rebel groups on the ground and has been frustrated in its attempts to win more tangible support from its allies in the West.
Mr. Ross told Rendezvous the coalition was opening an office in New York where the United Nations Security Council remains deadlocked on how to deal with the Syrian crisis in the face of Russia's continued support for the regime of President Bashar Al-Assad.
Independent Diplomat's role will be to gain a wider hearing at the U.N., where Mr. Ross served as his country's representative on Middle Eastern issues, and among governments, including that of the United States.
He said he would leave it to his new clients to put their arguments for greater international action. “We're not lobbyists, we're an advisory group,†he said. However, he acknowledged, “They're very clear. They realize they have a big lobbying battle ahead.â€
That is likely to involve calming Western fears about a perceived Islamist threat in a post-Assad Syria.
The National Coalition says its mission is to support rebel forces to lead Syria towards the establishment of a democratic and pluralistic civil state.
Moaz Al Khatib, its leader, urged rebel fighters on Wednesday to take a clear stand against Al Qaeda's ideology. His statement was in response to an announcement by Al Qaeda's affiliate in neighboring Iraq that it was formally merging with Syria's Jabhat Al Nusra rebel group.
The announcement was the latest development that threatened to scare off the coalition's allies as they debate deepening their engagement with the opposition.
Mr. Ross has noted in the past that similar fears of a perceived Islamist threat were used to justify non-intervention in Bosnia two decades.
In his recent comments on the Syrian situation, Mr. Ross has said that Western governments have alternative options between doing nothing and arming the rebels.
Arguing for a new policy of nonviolent intervention in an article for Britain's The Guardian, he proposed a range of tactics that might include use of electronic and Internet-based tools to disrupt the regime's operations.
“Rather than wasting money on already outdated weapons like the F-35 fighter,†he wrote, “perhaps the Pentagon could invest a tiny part of these expenditures in a cross-services division devoted to learning about and, when appropriate, deploying these nonviolent weapons for circumstances such as Syria's today.â€
