Text of commentary by Seyyed Mohammad Eslami headlined: "Why Did America Support the Opposition's New Coalition?" published by Iranian newspaper Khorasan on 13 December
Yesterday, Barack Obama, the US president personally announced that he has finally officially recognized the opposition coalition. But the acceptance of this new coalition by the United States took more than a month; a coalition that was formed in Doha by force and at the insistence of the Americans and even the arrangement of this coalition has been carried out according to the United States' taste.
US fear of Islamists in Syria
The "National Coalition for Syrian Revolution" was formed in Prague against the "Opposition National Council" some time after the unpredictable opinions expressed by Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state. After almost one year of communication with this council, the Americans reached the conclusion that they cannot provide the future that would be desired by Washington. The national council's weakness was lack of sufficient influence over the domestic opposition in Syria and the armed groups in particular. But in the final days of the life of this council, the United States gradually revealed that there is another reason concealed behind this decision. Their criticism of the national council was that it was too much under the influence of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood. Since the beginning of this crisis until the present day, the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood has never issued an official statement or communique under its official title or at least such statements have never appeared in the media. But this group's history shows that the foundation stone for the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood is armed activity; groups that hold jihadist and in certain cases even anti-Zionist beliefs. By appointing a Christian leader, the Syrian National Council tried to deny that it was under the influence of the Syrian Brotherhood but this had no result. Consequently, in its very first step, the United States completely limited the Syrian National Council, which for them was synonymous with the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood, and over the last few days, by creating a new military council, they have marginalized the Syrian Free Army and general Riad Al-Asaad.
Efforts by the opposition coalition for adaptation to Western values
Ahmad Maaz Al-Khatib, the head of the Doha coalition, is referred to as the former group Imam of the Umavi Mosque in Damascus. However, there are two other influential individuals within the leadership structure of this coalition, who have been paid less attention. Riad Saif, Mr Al-Khatib's first deputy, is a former member of the Syrian parliament and one of the country's liberals. Mrs Suhair Atassi, his second deputy, is one of the figures active in the field of women's rights in the Middle East. These two individuals, in addition to others who are in the opposition coalition organization, constitute guarantees that the Syrian government opposition has given to its Western allies to prove their commitment to pro-Western values and policies. Yesterday, only hours after Obama's interview with ABC, and during the summit in Marakesh, Ahmad Maaz, the head of the coalition emphasized his commitment to "diversity" and at the same time condemned "excommunicating" actions. In other words, Maaz announced his adherence to his political allies and Western beliefs and his exoneration from armed extremist groups that are also opposed to the United States.
If a comparison is carried out between Egypt's current conditions and the US scenario for the transfer of power in Syria, it would appear that the Americans do not wish to be stung in the same place twice. The Syrian Brotherhood's outlook is Salafi and although the Americans may have benefited in the short term from trusting them in the past, in the long-term, they have had to endure heavy costs. Therefore, from now on, we must wait for the new opposition coalition in Syria to squander more and more of their beliefs in order to attract Western support. The new US plan faces an important obstacle and that is the armed Salafi opposition, who are against the new coalition and the main arena of conflict against the Syrian government is currently under their control.
Source: Khorasan, Mashad, in Persian 13 Dec 12
i 1/2 BBC Monitoring
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