Published time: September 05, 2013 17:03
Secretary of State John Kerry told the United States Congress this week that rebel fighters in Syria are becoming more moderate amid allegations that extremist groups are infiltrating the opposition. New reports suggest quite the contrary, however.
Kerry is among the most determined officials in US President
Barack Obama’s administration to ask for a strike against Syrian
leader Bashar al-Assad as of late, but critics of American
intervention say arming the rebels overseas may hurt the goals
being tossed around in Washington. Of particular concern is how
extremist groups who are unfriendly to the US but also fighting
against Assad would benefit from American assistance.
On Tuesday this week, Kerry told the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee that the opposition “has increasingly become more
defined by its moderation, more defined by the breadth of its
membership and more defined by its adherence to some, you know,
democratic process and to an all-inclusive, minority-protecting
constitution.”
“Our goal is to help the opposition,” Kerry said, later
adding, “and the opposition is getting stronger by the
day.”
But despite insistence from the country’s top diplomat,
intelligence reports analyzed in recent days have suggested that
extremist groups fighting against Assad are gaining power.
According to a report published on Thursday by Reuters
journalists Mark Hosenball and Phil Stewart, radical Islamists
attempting to oust Assad pale in number to more moderate fighters
but “are better organized, armed and trained.”
Among those extremists, the reporters noted, are the al-Qaeda
aligned al-Nusra Front. At this rate, they reported, that group
may gain even more influence among the opposition.
“Left unchecked, I’m very concerned that the most radical
elements will take over larger segments” among rebel
fighters, David Shedd, deputy director of the Pentagon’s Defense
Intelligence Agency, told Reuters.
According to Shedd, the conflict in Syria could continue at this
rate for upwards of several years and may very well pave the way
for extremist fighters to influence the more moderate rebel
groups that Kerry said are growing in number.
Responding to Reuters’ request for comment, a spokesperson at the
Department of State said that the secretary’s remarks ring true
to the administration’s official stance, and supported Kerry’s
claim that a more democratized army is on the rise by saying the
opposition has “taken steps over the past months to coalesce,
including electing leaders.”
Outside of the administration, however, others are also unsure
with regards to Kerry’s estimate. Speaking to Voice of America
this week, Dr. Jonathan Schanzer of the DC-based think tank The
Foundation for Defense of Democracies said he couldn’t get behind
Kerry’s remarks.
“The Nusra Front and the Islamic State, along with a range of
other Salafi factions, remain a serious problem,” Schanzer
said. “The jihadi factions are still among the most effective
fighting forces in the Syrian opposition.”
Ahmad Majidyar, a senior research associate at DC’s American
Enterprise Institute, told VOA he doesn’t exactly agree either
with the State Department either.
“Secretary Kerry provided no information to back up his
statement about the move to moderation, but all indications on
the ground contradict his assertion,” Majidyar said.
“The Syrian uprising initially began by ordinary,
pro-Democracy citizens seeking an end to dictatorship,”
Majidyar added. “Two years now into the civil war, however,
al-Qaeda-affiliated groups have emerged as the most powerful
fighting force battling the Syrian government.”
“At present,” he continued, “the most adequately
equipped and well-trained insurgent groups in Syria are two
al-Qaeda affiliates. While these radical groups have benefited
from an influx of foreign fighters joining their ranks and
increasing funding from Sunni fundamentalists in the Gulf States,
the genuine Syrian opposition has grown weaker and more fractured
as a result of the international community’s failure to support
and unite them.”
That isn’t to say Kerry is on his own, however. In the Wall
Street Journal this week, war analyst Elizabeth O’Bagy wrote that
the composition of rebel fighters in the opposition groups had
“improved significantly” in recent time and has
“demonstrated a willingness to submit to civilian authority,
working closely with local administrative councils.”
O’Bagy has been analyzing the Syrian conflict for some time, and
earlier this year said things were much worse. When the New York
Times caught up with her in April, she argued that the make-up of
anti-Assad fighters was far from homogenous.
“When the armed rebellion began, defectors from the
government’s staunchly secular army formed the vanguard. The
rebel movement has since grown to include fighters with a wide
range of views, including Qaeda-aligned jihadis seeking to
establish an Islamic emirate, political Islamists inspired by the
Muslim Brotherhood and others who want an Islamic-influenced
legal code like that found in many Arab states,” she said.
“My sense is that there are no seculars,” O’Bagy told the
Times more than four months ago.
Now as the US moves towards launching a strike, O’Bagy is seeing
at least a little bit of more structure among the opposition. To
the Journal, she said, “While traveling with some of these
Free Syrian Army battalions, I’ve watched them defend Alawi and
Christian villages from government forces and extremist
groups.”
Meanwhile, the Associated Press reported this week that al-Qaeda
linked rebels attacked a regime-held Christian village on
Wednesday. According to the AP, a Nusra Front rebel blew himself
up near a regime checkpoint on Wednesday by the predominately
Christian village of Maaloula, after which other rebels stormed
the town and opened fire.
Commenting on Kerry’s assessment of the opposition group on
Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said, “he is lying
and he knows that he is lying.”
“This is certainly not the first time we’ve seen a visceral
response from President Putin,” an unnamed State Department
official responded to Fox News. “Needless to say, the
secretary of state testified truthfully and accurately to the
Congress.”
The results of a Washington Post/ABC News poll released on
Wednesday concluded that 27 percent of Americans support
supplying Syrian rebels with arms; 70 percent oppose equipping
the opposition with weaponry.
Republished from: RT