US stops short of legal recognition of Syrian rebels

US President Barack Obamas decision to recognize a Syrian rebel coalition constitutes a political move and does not legally designate the group as Syrias legitimate government, the US State Department said Wednesday. "This is a political step, not a legal step," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Wednesday of Obamas decision to recognize the Syrian Opposition Coalition, an alliance of rebel groups seeking to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Conferring legal recognition involves numerous complicated territorial and property issues, including control of the Syrian governments diplomatic presence in the United States, said Daniel Serwer, a former State Department mediator during the Bosnian war in the 1990s.