Gulf civil societies on Monday called on the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to recognise the new Syrian opposition front as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people.
"We call on GCC states to recognise the Syrian National Council as the sole legitimate representative of the Syrian people and withdraw recognition from the Syrian regime," said a statement by the Gulf Forum of Civil Societies.
"We call on Arab countries and international and humanitarian organisations to support the Syrian people against killings and oppression and provide protection," said the statement signed by the group's secretary general Anwar Al-Rasheed.
The Forum, which groups several mostly liberal Gulf civil societies, strongly condemned the regime of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad and called for a joint action to force him to "bow to the people's just demands."
Syrian opposition groups on Sunday formed the Syrian National Council at a meeting in Istanbul with the aim of presenting a united front against the Assad regime, which is engaged in a bloody crackdown on protests in which more than 2,700 people have been killed.
A number of GCC states, led by Saudi Arabia, recalled their ambassadors from Damascus in August for "consultations" over the crackdown.
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