France and the United States put their support behind a new coalition of Syrian dissidents Tuesday, but Damascus slammed the group, saying any effort to topple President Bashar al-Assad will be futile.

French President Francois Hollande said his nation "recognizes the Syrian national coalition as the sole representative of the Syrian people and therefore as the provisional government of the future democratic Syria, making it possible to bring Bashar al-Assad's regime to an end."

In Washington, a deputy spokesman for the State Department said the U.S. believes the decision to unite opposition groups marks the start of a democratic future for the Syrian people. The U.S. has yet to formally recognize the group, though, as a representative government.

"We're going to work with them in the coming days to ensure that our humanitarian and nonlethal assistance serves the needs of the Syrian people," Mark Toner told reporters.

Hollande, however, said the issue of arming the rebels "will have to be renewed" in nations that back the new National Coalition Forces of the Syrian Revolution.

The Syrian government remained defiant.

"There is no power in this entire world that can defeat Syria because we have a valiant military and our noble people believe in our cause," Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi said, according to the state-run Tishreen news agency. "Defending Syria is a national destiny and not a political option."

He also described dissidents outside Syria as "nothing but an empty bubble."

"The opposition abroad is clinically dead, and they are in a state of turmoil," al-Zoubi said.

The latest insults in the Syrian civil war came days after opposition factions formally agreed in Qatar to unite on Sunday.

Source: CNN