US arms al-Qaeda in Syria, ignores fallout: Analyst

The US, along with its Arab and Western allies, is openly arming the insurgents in Syria with heavy weapons and supported al-Qaeda terrorists in the crisis-hit country with the objective of toppling the legitimate government of Syria.

Press TV has conducted an interview with Dr. Hisham Jaber, the director of the Center for Middle East Studies from the Lebanese capital city of Beirut. To further discuss the issue.

The following is a rough transcript of the interview.

Press TV: Mr. Jaber welcome to the program. A recent issue that has come to light specifically over the past few days, that has also in a way been confirmed by the major news outlets; is the issue of al-Qaeda operating among the armed groups inside Syria.

Now my question is that, how is that equation working out that the United States and its allies are basically arming the armed groups and those armed groups comprise of al-Qaeda as well.

That means that the United States is basically giving arms to an entity which it deemed as a terrorist entity and has been fighting against, maybe over the past decade.

Jaber: Yes, as we always said the United States’ administration is in a very critical situation, there is controversy about the behavior of the administration in America at one hand, they always said to the American people that al-Qaeda is the enemy of the American people, on the other hand they are providing directly or indirectly, weapons to the insurgents in Syria and they know, they know very well that there are thousands of elements belonging to al-Qaeda or similar, are fighting in Syria.

We have got serious information that there are more than 6000 elements who are extremist Islamists belonging to al-Qaeda or believe on the doctrine of al-Qaeda.

The most important group of them is Kataeb, Abdullah Azzam which is more than 800 and they are Jibhat al-Nasra, and we heard a few days ago that Fath al-Islam also is fighting, so and so.

When we talk about al-Qaeda in Syria or everywhere, we do not talk about one single united organization, that every extremist armed group believes in al-Qaeda doctrine and belong to the same school [of thought], and the United States knows this.

An now I think that they are fighting in Aleppo and they are fighting in Hamma and Homs and the United States also knows that, as we learned a few days ago that the insurgents in Syria have been given 24 missiles, air defense missiles, maybe Stinger or Tom 7, will come from Libya, I believe that. And who paid the price of these? Of course Qatar or Saudi Arabia.

The United States now does not know, as we have always said, what will be the final destination of these dangerous and sophisticated air defense missiles.

I think that the things now are mixed up in Syria, and the Syrian armed forces will clean Aleppo and will never give up and we learned today that the final assault started yesterday and will take a few days, they focused on Salaheddin and also without forgetting other places where insurgents are fighting there; like Hannano and southern al-Jaberi.

Briefly, the so-called Free Syrian Army is fighting there, of course, but inside Aleppo also many elements are belonging to the extremist organizations, al-Qaeda or the equivalent[s] as we have always said. This is the problem now.

The public opinion, how can they convince the international community or the public opinion in the Western countries that al-Qaeda will not take over, for example take advantage and use those sophisticated weapons.

Press TV: Mr. Jaber as of recent new information has come to light, regarding Israel; as we know Israel is now part of the US-led campaign to topple the Syrian government, along with Saudi Arabia, with Qatar, with Turkey and now al-Qaeda.

They are sending armed gangs and providing funds and weapons in the ongoing unrest in Syria. So that pretty much conjures up an Israel-al-Qaeda-US alliance. How do you perceive this unlikely alliance?

Jaber: Yes, as far and as long as that al-Qaeda in Syria are serving the objectives of the United States and Israel, I think now they are supporting those groups; on the other hand they are trying to create a psychological warfare against the Syrian regime and to say, for example, if there is any massacre or any major incident in Syria, inside that psychological operation, which [is] prepared to say that the Syrian regime does not have any control on the city like Damascus last week and now after massacres may happen, [they are] talking about chemical weapons, for example.

In order to have a pretext or a reason to make the military operation from outside against Syria and from outside of the Security Council.

They are still working on this but preparing the climate and the atmosphere of fear, as we always said that the Syrian government and the Syrian regime does not have any control [over chemical weapons].

And using al-Qaeda maybe and others indirectly to do that job, for example if they control any place where there are chemical weapons, if there is a new massacre in Syria and no body knows who did it, you know if there is a question mark about it, this serves them, will be no credit for them or serve their objectives, whether this is al-Qaeda who did it or another groups.

But at the end of the day, they will discover that those elements will not be under their control and then will be a real risk, you know, and danger to their interests, when it will be too late when Syria will enter, I hope not, into a civil war and I do not think that they will have any control on that civil war on that time, I am talking about the Americans and the Israelis.