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Have US, Turkey found common ground in Syria? - Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East
▻http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/politics/2015/05/have-us-and-turkey-found-a-middle-course-in-syria.html#

Let’s look at the details of the Idlib operation. Military experts agree that this operation required intensive coordination among the groups in the field and the foreign actors that support them. But there is something even more significant. Western media reported that the Idlib operation was conducted by jihadist organizations such as Jabhat al-Nusra, but that the Free Syrian Army (FSA), supported by Washington, also played an important role in the operation.

Charles Lister, a Middle East expert at the Brookings Institution, a prominent US think tank, has spoken to some FSA sources who had taken part in the Idlib operation. FSA sources told him that the decision of the FSA to join the operation led by Jabhat al-Nusra was made by the joint US-Turkey operations room in Antakya. In other words, the United States seems to have modified its position on jihadist groups in Syria.

Previously, the United States was giving arms to groups it supported on the condition that they distance themselves from the jihadists and that they refrain from any joint action with those groups. The Idlib operation, however, shows that Washington is now more flexible when it comes to working with jihadists.

There is another change in Washington’s approach. Washington has refused to supply the opposition with anti-aircraft weapons, fearing they may end up in jihadist arsenals. However, a few days ago the head of the Syrian National Coalition, Khaled Khoja, announced on his Facebook page that the United States has changed its position on not supplying anti-aircraft weapons to the opposition. Some experts believe that this US change will allow the opposition to set up protected safe zones.