aris2chat
Gold Member
- Feb 17, 2012
- 18,678
- 4,689
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I don't understand why this should surprise anyone. It is an old strategy of his father's, right out of daddy's game book.
Is the Assad Regime in League with al-Qaeda?
Opposition groups and their Western backers say that despite claims to be fighting terrorism, Bashar Assad is colluding with extremists
By Aryn Baker / Beirut @arynebakerJan. 27, 20142 Comments
File photo of mural of Syria's President Assad riddled with holes on the facade of the police academy in Aleppo after it was captured by Free Syrian Army fighters
Reuters
A mural of President Assad riddled with holes on the facade of the police academy in Aleppo in 2013.
For months, anti-regime activist claims that the Syrian government has cultivated a beneficial relationship with al-Qaeda groups in order to undermine the opposition have fallen on deaf ears. After all, the idea that Syrian President Bashar Assad, who has staked his leadership platform on a campaign against “terrorists”—his term for all anti-government fighters and supporters—would engage with the most radical of all rebel groups, reeks of conspiracy theories. Yet an emerging consensus among analysts and Western diplomats reveals that there might be some truth to the accusations after all. The opposition is now hoping that a shift in the current Syria narrative—which pits the regime against dangerous Islamist extremists—may help spur an international push to remove Assad from power, according to Rami Jarrah, a well-regarded Syrian anti-regime activist who is currently in Geneva on the sidelines of the talks.
Is the Assad Regime in League with al-Qaeda?
Opposition groups and their Western backers say that despite claims to be fighting terrorism, Bashar Assad is colluding with extremists
By Aryn Baker / Beirut @arynebakerJan. 27, 20142 Comments
File photo of mural of Syria's President Assad riddled with holes on the facade of the police academy in Aleppo after it was captured by Free Syrian Army fighters
Reuters
A mural of President Assad riddled with holes on the facade of the police academy in Aleppo in 2013.
For months, anti-regime activist claims that the Syrian government has cultivated a beneficial relationship with al-Qaeda groups in order to undermine the opposition have fallen on deaf ears. After all, the idea that Syrian President Bashar Assad, who has staked his leadership platform on a campaign against “terrorists”—his term for all anti-government fighters and supporters—would engage with the most radical of all rebel groups, reeks of conspiracy theories. Yet an emerging consensus among analysts and Western diplomats reveals that there might be some truth to the accusations after all. The opposition is now hoping that a shift in the current Syria narrative—which pits the regime against dangerous Islamist extremists—may help spur an international push to remove Assad from power, according to Rami Jarrah, a well-regarded Syrian anti-regime activist who is currently in Geneva on the sidelines of the talks.