US weapons can easily fall into al-Qaeda’s hands in Syria: Analyst

An analyst says those who initially wanted reforms in Syria can no longer trust the foreign-backed militarized opposition because of the atrocities taking place by the armed militants.

Press TV has conducted an interview with Moufid Jaber, from the Center for Middle East Studies and Public Relations, to further discuss the issue. The following is an approximate transcript of the interview.

Press TV: NBC News reported this past week that the militarized Syrian opposition has now received its first batch of surface-to-air missiles via Washington’s NATO ally Turkey. So again that issue of all options and how much aid or support the United States and its allies including Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar are willing to give to these militants?

But who is Turkey giving these missiles for example to and are they guaranteeing that these missiles are not going to fall into the wrong hands?

Jaber: On principle Turkey and NATO are giving weapons to the Free Syrian Army but since the Free Syrian Army is not a very cohesive organization and since the members of the Free Syrian Army are people who are not disciplined or professional soldiers, it is very likely that the weapons that have been given by the US and Turkey and their allies to the Free Syrian Army can fall into the hands of different organizations namely those that are on the extreme spectrum namely al-Qaeda and the other extreme Sunni organizations like al-Qaeda and the Nusra Front.

Press TV: Well I’d just like to refer to some reports now that has been spread saying that President Obama signed a secret order earlier this year and that was when the US was publicly voicing support for Kofi Annan’s peace plan and that signing was about permitting the CIA and other US agencies to provide support that could help the militants oust Assad, according to those reports.

Now Mr. Moufid Jaber, I’d like to put this question to you, do you think then based on this there was initially and originally a concerted effort to disrupt that peace plan that for now of course seems very unlikely to work with Kofi Annan resigning?

Jaber: Initially the US wanted to make the Syrian government led by President Assad kneel down but now its goal has changed and their goal is to effectively remove Bashar al-Assad from power.

So yes, the United States is making a great deal of effort into arming the militants and its only goal upon to this point is to replace the government of Bashar al-Assad with one which would be more loyal to the US as well as the allies with the US namely Saudi Arabia and Qatar and a government that would be in line with the foreign policy of the US and Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

So why the US at the beginning of the conflict they were not this enthusiastic about arming the opposition but now we have reached a completely different stage. Now the US are doing as much as they could to provide the Syrian militants with intelligence reports that would allow them to gain the upper hand in this conflict.

Press TV: Mr. Moufid Jaber, a lot of people have been saying now that the ranks of those Syrians who did want reforms in the first place or who still wanted now and desperately actually looking for it, they are slowly realizing that the uprising against President Assad has taken a new and a darker form and that they cannot now trust this form of opposition, the militarized opposition, the foreign-backed opposition because of the atrocities we are hearing about taking place, they cannot trust that opposition to bring them what they have been looking for maybe originally in Syria. What do you think?

Jaber:Yes the protests in Syria began with legitimate demands for political rights and economic rights but they have turned into completely different thing, one which is basically a struggle between the imperialist forces led by the US and supported by Saudi Arabia and Qatar and Turkey and Israel covertly and forces that are loyal to the resistance.

It is no longer a question of political reforms, it has taken a completely different form. Now even those who opposed Assad and were even vehemently opposed to Assad during the entire reign of Hafez al-Assad and Bashar al-Assad, people who have lived outside of Syria for so many years are now backing even reluctantly the Syrian government because it is no longer as I said the problem of reforms, it is a war that has been waged on Syria in order to undermine its geopolitical position, it’s position as a facility for the flow of weapons to the resistance in Lebanon.

So this is a war that has been waged on the Syrian government not because of its nature as a regime that does not provide any political freedom but as a regime that has always supported the resistance and so now even those who opposed the Syrian regime are initially now coming to support it, facing those who have only recently defected to the opposition by being offered financial centers by Qatar and Saudi Arabia.