In Part 5, we move to the inside and outside Syrian opposition, its components, armed groups, disagreements, as well as its political vision towards the recent events in Syria.
Sadeq Khanafer, Hussein Mallah
In part 5 of “Why Assad wasn’t, won’t be Defeated?” we move to the inside and outside Syrian opposition, its components, armed groups, disagreements, as well as its political vision towards the recent events in Syria.
Opposition is usually named after those who oppose the governing party as is common among the so-called dominant democracies worldwide.
Opposition in Syria
In the Syrian case, the Socialist Baath Party took power beside the Progressive Front Parties. It encountered many opposing forces in Syria and abroad, among which were some secular, Islamic, and communist movements, as well as others. But those movements didn’t have the efficient influence on the Syrian situation for many following reasons: the phase it was witnessing in the last decades, which exposed it to various dues and targets. Therefore, the regime didn’t score wide openness to the opposition forces because it wasn’t very popular on the local level. In its turn, opposition forces didn’t show its readiness to approach.
The scene has changed after March 2011; opposition forces found in the events an opportunity to humiliate the regime under the so-called "Arab spring." The events in Syria stimulated some opposition groups (Muslim Brotherhood) to achieve their political enterprise just like the other countries in which "Islamic" parties moved forward, especially in Tunisia and Egypt after the collapse of (Mubarak and Bin Ali's) regimes. However, other opposition groups considered that the current situation demands a new Syria ruled by multiple parties rather that the one-party control.
Opposition, Oppositions...
One of the main points of weakness among the Syrian opposition groups is its dispersion and the many conflicts within it. They could not agree on a unified group until the moment despite the continuous Arab and western attempts to unite them. Perhaps the most remembered scenes were some of those that were leaked showing conflicts and fighting in the past few months.
Dispersion among the opposition groups not only contributes to the difference in objectives, but also contributes mainly to the interests of foreign powers that sponsor and fund many groups. Saudi Arabia favors a group, fund it and sponsor its program. Also Qatar and Turkey have their own group, western powers such as France, the United Kingdom, and mostly important the United States, have the ability to control the opposition groups as well.
Syrian Opposition Coalition
The opposition has been dispersed along several months; and the formation of the Syrian National Council didn’t solve any of its problems and its competition. Beautifying attempts to add a national dimension to the opposition by nominating a leftist, one Christian and another Kurdish candidate didn’t bear fruits as well. This is because the groups sponsored by Doha and Ankara were still heavier in the scale until the US interfered and imposed the so-called Opposition Coalition that was announced in Qatar after serious efforts led by the former American Ambassador to Damascus Robert Ford as well as Qatari and Turkish officials, not to mention that the coalition was led by Ahmad Moaz Al-Khatib.
However, dispersion and divergence have been recorded within the coalition itself, they raged after designating Ghassan Hito head of the so-called transitional government, in addition to reporting clashes between the fighting groups on the Syrian land.
National Coordination Body
Apart from the Opposition Coalition, some powers could save a kind of independence even though they were marginalized and excluded on both the western and Arab levels for their plan lacks harmony with what was planned for Syria. Among them is the National Coordination Body.
The National Coordination Body sticks to its interior and exterior wings, refuses foreign intervention either by funding and armament or by direct military participation. It also doesn’t exempt the regime’s apparatuses from a great responsibility toward the current situation.
Everybody Undertakes Responsibility
In this context, Head of the National Coordination Body Hassan Abd Al-Azim stresses in an interview with Al-Manar Website that “the regime is responsible for a part of the crisis as well as some foreign sides in the opposition that worked and promised a foreign intervention, and made people believe that a military invention and an aerial ban would take place.” “The regime’s extremists as well as those in the opposition bet on the military security solution. Some non-Syrian groups came to the country to apply their programs in establishing an Islamic emirate,” he added.
According to him, the Syrians’ demands are concluded by “ending up the tyranny and corruption regime, establishing a national democratic regime and a civil country, as well as a nation for the Syrian people regardless to their national, religious, and sectarian beliefs, and a country for all in which all citizens could participate.”
Between the Body and the Coalition
Everybody knows that the Body opposes the Opposition Coalition and the National Council. Abd Al-Azim sees that “this council is dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood that believes that the solution will be reached militarily just like the regime’s belief in a security military solution.” The man notes that “some sides and new figures attempts to get involved in the Coalition like Moaz Al-Khatib are almost non-influential.”
“When Al-Khatib announced his position (toward dialogue with the regime) that is similar to the Coordination Body’s position on the level of political solution and ending up violence, they tried to exclude him,” he said. As a result, Abd Al-Azim stresses that “taking stances within the Coalition is governed by some conditions such as funding, armament, and other foreign conditions.”
“The Coalition’s Government”
Head of the National Coordination Body strongly rejects the coalition’s forming a temporary government in North Syria. “The National Coordination Body and all its allies are against forming this temporary government. Since the formation of the Syrian National Council, we were against the formation of a government in exile,” said Abd Al-Azim. He added that “we are with the transitional government that was decided in the Geneva accord to hold negotiations between the opposition and the revolution on one hand and the regime on the other.
"Militants and “Jihadists”
The political visions of the different opposition groups could have been proposed in another country that is not witnessing a bloody conflict like Syria. These clashes resulted till the moment in dozens killed and millions displaced. Therefore, the fighting powers on the ground will defeat the figures and parties settling in Arab and foreign capitals and accused of not living the domestic suffering.
Information indicates that the gap is growing bigger between the armed groups and the opposition, even within the same lines (the Opposition Coalition and the Free Army). The latter is suffering from the plurality of the field commanders in addition to lacking a coherent organizational structure due to the many conflicts and clashes within it. In the meantime, it is reported that internal killings are taking place, among which was the assassination attempt against Colonel Riyadh Al-Assaad, the Commander of FSA, few weeks earlier in Deir Az-Zour.
Therefore, the “Jihadist powers” could move the “Free Army” from many positions and occupy wide areas in the opposition’s areas of influence, especially the “Al-Nusra Front” that pledged allegiances to Al-Qaeda, as well as several groups that follow their foreign sponsors.
“All in all, it is not weird that there is no place now for the political opposition’s voice in Syria. Priority is for the ground pending the foreign sides’ agreement on the framework of solving the crisis in Syria after critical warnings from its side effects on the neighboring countries…”
Coming soon:
Part 6: Syria… The World Became Two Poles
Part 7: Solution in Syria?
