White House willing to support a Syrian rebel coalition that would include Islamist groups

Kassem CC BY-NC-SA 13/12/2013

U.S. may be open to Islamists joining Syrian rebel coalition
▻http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/white-house-willing-to-support-a-syrian-rebel-coalition-that-would-include-islamist-groups/2013/12/12/e400fc86-636d-11e3-aa81-e1dab1360323_story.html

3 conditions, la dernière me paraissant inexplicable si les deux premières sont remplies.

The Obama administration is willing to consider supporting an expanded Syrian rebel coalition that would include Islamist groups, provided the groups are not allied with al-Qaeda and agree to support upcoming peace talks in Geneva, a senior U.S. official said Thursday.
In addition, the official said, the Americans would like the Islamic Front groups to return U.S. vehicles, communications gear and other non-lethal equipment they seized last weekend from warehouses at the Syria-Turkey border.

Plus loin encore,

“whatever happens with the reorganization” of the armed opposition, the official said, “we want our stuff back.” The equipment, including vehicles and communications and medical equipment, was part of a program, administered by the State Department, to send U.S. non-lethal supplies to the SMC. A separate program, run by the CIA, distributes small arms and ammunition to the rebels.

En fait des contacts auraient déjà été pris dans le mois dernier, en vain,

Talks between U.S. envoy Robert Ford and Islamic Front figures held in Turkey last month were inconclusive, said the senior U.S. official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity about the developing policy.

Une nouvelle rencontre est prévue aujourd’hui,

Ford is traveling to London on Friday to meet with other international backers of the Syrian opposition, and then to Turkey for discussions with the Syrian Opposition Coalition, the U.S.-backed political leadership. He may also meet there with the Islamic Front, said the senior official.

Quant à Salim Idriss, il est loin d’être certain que sa « fuite » en soit une.

#Syrie #bons_djihadistes #mauvais_djihadistes #Arabie_Saoudite

Kassem CC BY-NC-SA

Kassem @kassem CC BY-NC-SA 13/12/2013

The flight of Dr. General Engineer Salim Hero Idris
▻http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-flight-of-dr-general-engineer-salim.html
... the accounts in US papers (WP and NYT in particular) are quite false. Arabic newspapers added more details. It is not that the warehouses were taken over by the Islamic Front: they were handed over according to an agreement that was supervised by the cousin of Dr. Engineer General himself (apparently, like the regime, the Syrian rebels especially the Fee Syrian Army make appointments on nepostic grounds). And there are accounts that Gen.Dr Engineer once settled in Qatar, was ordered by the US government to go back to Syria but he chose his fancy home in Turkey instead.
Furthermore, the contents of the US-supplied warehouses are not what US papers have reproted: apparently they include advanced weapons including Stinger missiles supplied by Gulf regimes (clealry with a nod and wink from the US government). Basically, Obama has upgraded the weapons capability of the Bin Ladenites gangs in the Middle East region.

Kassem @kassem CC BY-NC-SA
Kassem @kassem CC BY-NC-SA 13/12/2013

Première nouvelle,
▻http://www.lemonde.fr/proche-orient/article/2013/12/13/les-actions-du-front-islamique-affaiblissent-l-armee-syrienne-libre_4333875_
Si l’Arabie saoudite persiste à soutenir des unités dites modérées et pro-occidentales, le Qatar et la Turquie, deux Etats à la pointe de la lutte contre le régime Assad, auraient financé, selon une source diplomatique, la création du Front islamique.
Toujours est-il que ledit Front islamique, est intensément courtisé maintenant, ▻http://www.985fm.ca/international/nouvelles/conference-de-paix-sur-la-syrie-les-islamistes-so-288164.html
Un représentant de la Coalition nationale syrienne, Monzer Akbik, a déclaré devant des journalistes à Londres que l’opposition syrienne était favorable à la formation d’une délégation aussi inclusive que possible et que le Front islamique, une coalition de rebelles islamistes, était invité à envoyer des représentants pour prendre part aux négociations.

Kassem @kassem CC BY-NC-SA
Kassem @kassem CC BY-NC-SA 13/12/2013

▻http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2013/12/13/can-the-free-syrian-army-do-better
To remedy these shortcomings, the memo proposes creating a “logistical board” that includes the seven major moderate and Islamist factions, excluding only the al-Qaeda affiliates, the al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.

Kassem @kassem CC BY-NC-SA
Kassem @kassem CC BY-NC-SA 13/12/2013

Obama’s Syria policy is pretty much dead, and there are few good options
▻http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Security-Watch/Backchannels/2013/1212/Obama-s-Syria-policy-is-pretty-much-dead-and-there-are-few-good-options
What are the options going forward for a real US strategy in Syria – where the conflict continues to cast a shadow of destabilization over Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, and to some extent Turkey? None particularly obvious.
Direct military involvement is so unlikely as to not worth being considered. A major outreach to the non-Al Qaeda Islamists, coupled with a major diplomatic effort to convince the Saudis to arm-twist their clients into compromise? Perhaps that’s a way forward – (...)

Kassem @kassem CC BY-NC-SA

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