photo: site intelligence
Not even a day after confirmation of Al Nusra's allegiance to Al Qaeda surfaced in a tape, the Syrian opposition is trying to distance itself from the rebel group.
Many activists see Al Qaeda's intrusion, and therefore Al Nusra by reflection, as a land grab that has usurped the insurgent's effort to achieve democracy in their country.
The Local Coordination Committees, or LCC, which oversee the insurgents' efforts, completely rejected the statement made by Al Zawahiri that called for the establishment of an islamic state in Syria on a similar model as the Taliban's rule of Afghanistan before the war.
The LCC views the leader of Al Qaeda as injecting himself without any merit in the bloody civil war.
In effect, Al Nusra, although it is the most powerful rebel group on the ground and has won over many citizens with their offer of aid and bread, not to mention support for the insurgents, have entered the war theatre in Syria with second aims, which have now been blatantly revealed.
This however is not helping the insurgents, since it vindicates the lies of the regime that they are battling not an insurgency for democracy but foreign terrorists who want to use Syria as a battleground.
The debate on the ground has reached fever pitch. Insurgents are loath to condemn Al Nusra, but others among them want the foreign rebel group to be completely excluded from the nascent independent government formed by the insurgents' representative and formally recognized by France and the Arab League.
The risks at this point are very high. Apart from the risk of partition, which could be ruinous and very real, there is also the risk that the insurgents might have to fight the rebels of Al Nusra and other Al Qaeda affiliated groups once the Assad regime is toppled, if that is achieved. And that not only voids the legitimacy of the insurgency, but it weakens it at the core, serving no one and hindering any effort from foreign countries to come to the insurgents' rescue.
It is also a gross prevarication of the Syrian people's sovereignty and their right to determine their own fate.
The LCC on their part reiterates the principles on which the insurgency was begun: "Freedom, justice and a civil, democratic pluralist state."
Partial Source: France 24/4.11.13
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