Cracks in the Syrian opposition as Assad launches offensive

Assad’s forces in Syria have recently launched a ferocious offensive against the rebel city Homs. (See here for al-Jazeera’s live blog of events in Syria). Ehsani, a blogger for Syria comment, suggested that prior to this Assad had only used 20% of his full military capability, and is only now deploying closer to his full might.

In the midst of this offensive cracks are appearing in the opposition. It has been reported that the Syrian National Council, considered to be the voice of the Syrian opposition and officially recognized by numerous states, is perceived within Syria as dominated by Sunnis from the Muslim Brotherhood. Christian, Kurds, and Allawis have largely stayed away from the council, denying it the legitimacy of being more representative of the Syrian people.

Recently, Riad al-As’ad, founder and commander of the Free Syrian Army, was interviewed by BBC Arabic to give his thoughts on the Syrian National Council. He confirmed that there is no connection at all between the SNC and the FSA, weakening their legitimacy further. This is two months after their agreement to coordinate actions.

Translation of the interview segment-

Unfortunately, the position of the Syrian National Council up to this point is that of words; we have not received any support from the SNC. The SNC…. the Arab League, is a council of failure. If this matter is not corrected, we will stand against this council of conspirators against the Syrian people..as this council has proved that it is not capable of supporting the Syrian people and it has not given the Syrian people any material or field support…

We operate without any political cover as the SNC stands against the people, and has not given the people any support except for humanitarian support, and if the SNC is not capable of leadership in this stage then it must leave, and leadership must come from those qualified to do so.”

See here for the complete segment.