It would be nice to think that SNC leader Burhan Ghalioun is opposed to a NATO invasion, and in conjunction with Gen al-Sheikh, is trying to unseat FSA leader Col Riyad al-Assad, who is in favour of one. But in that case, why should the Turks should have frozen Col Riyad al-Assad’s bank accounts? Haaretz’s Zvi Bar’el ends his story:
The leadership of the Syrian National Council supports UN intervention and additional sanctions, while the others demand Western military intervention.
Col Riyad al-Assad told Reuters a week ago by phone:
We call on the Arab League to turn the issue over to the UN Security Council and we ask that the international community intervene.
But Shamus Cooke wrote in an article dated Jan 23 2012:
The Syrian National Council is yet another US puppet, now allied with the Free Syrian Army, begging for a military invasion of Syria in order to “liberate” it.
Jason Ditz says something at AntiWar.com which suggests that he is not living in anarchist cloud cuckoo land:
Much of the final decision will be based on which of the two gains NATO’s support.
- RB
Rivalry among Syrian defectors could mean another military coup
Zvi Bar’el, Haaretz, Jan 24 2012 (abridged)
Fissures are emerging within the Syrian opposition over control of the Free Syrian Army, hitherto commanded by Col Riad al-Assad, who defected several months ago and set up his command headquarters in Turkey, as well as a logistical base and a bank account to which donations by citizens and governments are transferred. However, two weeks ago, Gen Mustafa al-Sheikh defected from the army, and thus created a problem in the command hierarchy of the Free Syrian Army. Al-Sheikh demands the creation of a supreme military council, headed by himself, which will coordinate all of the military operations against the regime. Col Riad al-Assad decided that, despite al-Sheikh’s senior rank, he, al-Assad, is the supreme commander of the Free Syrian Army, as he was the first senior officer to defect, as well as the one who laid the force’s organizational and operational infrastructure. The argument between the senior officers is already causing a rift among the defectors, some of whom have already abandoned al-Assad’s loyalists and joined al-Sheikh. All this after it became clear that al-Assad was not capable of paying his loyalists, as Turkey has decided to close his Turkish bank account.
Into the controversy stepped Burhan Ghalioun, head of the Syrian National Council, the umbrella group of the civilian protest movement. Ghalioun met with Gen al-Sheikh, angering the spokesperson of the Syrian Free Army, Lama al-Atasi, who published a Facebook status saying:
We heard that you are pushing division within the ranks of the Free Syrian Army. I ask you: Who are you working for?
At the same time, officers of the Free Syrian Army began to speak out against the Syrian National Council. According to a report published on Ilaf, one of the defecting officers, Khaled Yousef, said:
The SNC does not represent the revolution. The SNC is disconnected from the suffering of civilians, and we request of the people that they reject its legitimacy.
The leadership of the Syrian National Council supports UN intervention and additional sanctions, while the others demand Western military intervention.
