In other words, the SNC seeks to frame their policies in benign terms and unlike their enemies, neither they nor their ‘friends’ interfere in the sovereignty of other nations. Their opponents policies ‘kill’ but their ‘friends’ are freedom loving and ‘moral’. The logic of the SNC is one of alliances, even if it means buttressing imperialism and its regional allies, in their attempts to manipulate the Syrian uprising for their own gains. This can be seen in documents produced by the SNC that frames any negative consequences of a military intervention in their effects on US and Israeli hegemony (the linked document is a report authored by retired general Akil Hachim, Osama Mounajed (SNC members) and prepared by a member of the neo-conservative Henry Jackson Society and ardent Zionist, Michael Weiss).

For example, Redwan Ziadeh delivers a statement at a meeting organized by the ‘American Jewish Committee’ (a committee aligned to America’s biggest Zionist lobby (AIPAC)). In this statement, signed by prominent Neo-Conservatives and Redwan Ziadeh himself, a military intervention is argued as something necessary to protect civilians against the brunt of the regime. Yet these same signatories, such as Paul Bremner, oversaw or supported wanton mass-massacres and the use of chemical weapons against Iraqi civilians.  Here (though the interview, it seems, was before the uprising), Basma al-Kudmani, from the leadership of the SNC, states the necessity and also need for the existence of Zionism in the region and argues for normalization of relations with it. This is likely a statement of belief and not political expediency, as she documents her work to buttress normalization and the acceptance of a Zionist project in the region.

Similarly, the SNC joins a media campaign, similar to the one before the war on Iraq, that includes stories of links between Al-Qaeda and Iran, attempts to assassinate diplomats, the participation of 15,000 (!) of Iran’s Badr Brigades (along with Hezbollah) in military operations (propagated by the SNC through Saudi media channels) and so on. So Iran interferes, is everywhere, pernicious and a threat that needs to be curtailed. Yet, the US and its allies do not interfere, or if they do, it is advocated in the benign language of partnerships, international law, protection of civilians and Arab unity.

The SNC is signaling its intentions of full collaboration with US hegemony and that under no circumstance will their regional interests face any threats. As stated before, judging from the SNC’s manoeuvring, the SNC will seek to intensify its campaign to militarise the revolt, seek a military intervention and full recognition. In doing so it will represent itself solely in terms of one side of a proxy-struggle between different powers; the side, in Basma Kudmani’s terms, of the protector of freedom and human rights in the world.

The full series of interviews with Hamid Dabashi, on Syria, can be accessed here …

It is no secret that the Syrian National Council carries obsessions regarding Iran and this signifies the alliances they are seeking to build and endorse. In this message, they claim Bashar al-Assad is running an operations room with five key figures of the regime, according to their unnamed sources, and there is a decision to escalate within the regime to end the uprising in five days. The threshold given is two thousand fatalities in any operation and this is in coordination with both Russia and Iran, who have full knowledge of all plans. In another news item, reported by the Saudi monarchy’s mouthpiece (Al-Arabiyya), reported is the presence of 15,000 (!) of Iranian special forces in Syria, led by General Qasim Suleimani. The news is sourced to the Israeli Haaretz, Turkish As-Sabah and an Iranian opposition website calling itself ‘The Green Journalists’. These same sources, according to Al-Arabiyya, source the story to an unnamed leader in the SNC! The news item is also carried on the SNC’s official Facebook page.

The strategy of the SNC, since its inception, is to mimic the Libyan scenario but with more calculated attempts to ally itself with US imperialism, with hopes that this will result in a hands-on adoption of the SNC, including its recognition, and a NATO military intervention in Syria. Of course, what the SNC wants is not the same as the agendas of regimes they wish to ally themselves with. There is little evidence that Turkey will allow its territory to be a base for an open guerrilla war with the Syrian regime, let alone for the Turkish army to commit to an incursion in Syria. The US may value a more encompassing relation with the SNC but they themselves carry their own agenda, of which concerns over Iran and Israel are central. The SNC may promise collaboration with this agenda, as is seen in their statements, but the US may choose to work with its trusted client states, to orchestrate a transition, but not seek to engender themselves with another war in the middle-east, especially with a coming election year. More, the complications of such an intervention are incomparable with a Libya scenario, despite the wishes of the SNC to naively emulate it.

The ‘National Coordination Committee for Democratic Change’, in response to the Russian and Chinese veto in the UN Security Council, on the Arab League plan, issued a statement advising the SNC to quit from its pointless attempts to force a military intervention and instead to work with all powers to push for a consensus document that ensures that Russian fears of a NATO intervention or a US unilateralism are considered. The Russian veto, according to ‘National Coordination Committee for Democratic Change’, was partly induced with a hurrying of a resolution at the UN Security Council, with little dialogue with Russia in developing a consensus document. For this reason, the opposition, should dialogue with all nation states allied with the Syrian regime to break this alliance and work towards a democratic transition in Syrian and an end to the current violence orchestrated by the regime.

These issues were raised by the permanent representative of Russia at the UN (Vitaly I. Churkin), who claims the proposed resolution contained unilateral measures, e.g. sanctions, and did not stipulate the withdrawal of all armed presence in town and cities (both government and opposition). The main issue was a Russian sense that the US and its allies were pushing forward their own resolution through the Security Council and not working with others towards a negotiated solution. The Syrian uprising is now fully on the agenda of geopolitics and is turning into a proxy war between conflicting blocs.

Syrian liberals and alliances with the US State Department

Instead of heeding the advice of the ‘National Coordination Committee for Democratic Change’, the SNC have gone an extra mile in its attempts to win over the US imperialism and its gulf allies. Ridwan Ziyadeh, a member of the SNC, has openly called for an alliance with the US, the Gulf states and Turkey, as a coalition of what he terms as ‘friends of Syria’. Muhammad al-Abdullah, also a member of the SNC, claims the Obama regime are supportive of freedoms and human rights in what is the ‘Arab Spring’. Empty claims that apart from the logic of alliances and partisanship requires little consideration but this is something that is regular discourse among Arab liberals and specifically this wing of Arab liberals that are now the dominant voice in the SNC. According to Muhammad Rassas, a gradual shift has occurred in the ranks of the Syrian opposition – the emergence of a faction of Syrian liberals that while a prominent faction and voice before the uprising, has now become a dominant faction of the Syrian opposition. The rise of this faction can be traced to a shift in some members of the Syrian opposition from their older Marxist beliefs, from a variety of Communist and revolutionary Socialist parties, to the adoption of what are liberal politics and its derivative discourses of a ‘modern enlightenment project’. This faction was largely supportive of alliances and garnering support from US imperialism. Something made known through Wikileaks documents, that affirmed the support and backing of factions of the Syrian opposition from the US State Department.

Together with Kurdish parties and other leftist socialists, a coalition of Syrian opposition coalition emerged (Damascus Declaration) in 2005 (later both the Muslim Brotherhood, Nasserite parties and some Marxists from the Communist Action Party joined this coalition). It is this coalition and the different trends within it that can provide some understanding for the current split in the Syrian opposition. Contradictions within this coalition remained, specifically the topic of alliances with the US state department, and this all re-emerges in the split between the Syrian National Council, with its current coalition between the Muslim Brotherhood and many of the past liberal voices, and the ‘National Coordination Committee for Democratic Change’. The question of a foreign intervention and alliances was put forward early on the uprising but the formation of the Syrian National Council provided the dominant faction of Syrian liberals (one of the dominant and founding factions of the Damascus Declaration) with a body to formulate these alliances with the intensification of regime repression. The Muslim Brotherhood provided support to these calls but this came later, after initially refusing any military intervention but then only supporting a Turkish intervention in Syria.

Thus all indications show the SNC will seek no ties with ‘National Coordination Committee for Democratic Change’ and will push towards their hopes of seeking recognition and building alliances with the US and its allies, as one one side of a geopolitical struggle. Instead of attempting to build a consensus around the Arab League initiative, the SNC will seek to aggravate and heighten its rhetoric against Russia, China and Iran. In what is a geopolitical proxy war, the SNC has framed its allies as ‘friends’ of Syria and others as complicit in the regime’s repression.

Below is a Syrian National Council advertisement published in the Saudi monarchy owned Al-Hayat newspaper. It is signed by the Syrian National Council, Association of Syrian Scholars, Conference of Muslim Scholars in support of the Syrian people and the Syrian expatriate community residing in Saudi-Arabia. The poster delivers gratitude and thanks to the Saudi monarchy, with special mention of the current crown-prince and former [ruthless] interior minister (Prince Nayef).

This message of gratitude comes after the Syrian National Council met with the foreign minister of the Saudi monarchy (Prince Saud al-Faisal) and comes as a message of encouragement in hope of future recognition from the Saudi monarchy.

As the Syrian National Council seeks backing and support from the US and its client states, it also signals to re-direct Syria’s regional alliances and break its strategic ties with Iran. It seems to offer, in exchange for recognition and support of a military intervention, gains for the US and the Saudi monarchy in a responsive body that re-structures alliances to curtail Iran’s threat, as an emerging regional power, to Israel’s hegemony as a US imperial outpost. However, this was not always the case – for many months into the uprising the Obama regime intentionally avoided any official ties with the Syrian National Council, as it sought to keep some status quo by the preservation of the Syrian regime but with some reforms. It was only later, in relation to the contingencies and the advance state of the Syrian uprising, that the Obama regime sought ties and dialogue channels with the Syrian National Council as not only a leverage in a post-Bahsar al-Assad Syria but also as an opportunity, through its satellite of regional allies, to break Iran’s strategic depth in the region.

While both Abdulrahman and Azzawi stress their work is not influenced by political allegiances, their respective political positions correlate with a greater dispute between Syria’s opposition groups on the question of foreign intervention and the military option.

The campaign led by Azzawi to discredit Abdulrahman seems to come on the heels of a major fallout between the Syrian National Council (SNC) and the National Coordination Body for Democratic Change in Syria (NCB). A controversial Cairo agreement struck in December between Haytham al-Manna of the NCB and SNC head Burhan Ghalioun collapsed on the very question of foreign intervention and the militarization of the uprising. The letter attacking Abdulrahman surfaced a few weeks after.

To access the full report please click here …

Head of PR (Public Relations) in Mapna (one of the largest electrical contracting companies in Iran that specialises in the development and building of power plants) confirms all seven of the captives as employees of their company. The military documentation they owned, he states, were conscription books that every Iranian carries (similar to Syria) upon completion of military service. The company official also states the man featured in the video and likely forced to read from a script, is an engineer that has worked for some time in the ‘Jandar’ eletricial plant in Homs. Considering those kidnapped are vouched by the very company that employs their services, then it is likely that the Iranian citizens appearing in the video are engineers that were captured and forced to confess in what appears to be either a propaganda stunt or a growing hysteria and paranoia with the presence of any Iranian citizen in Syria.

It is not surprising that the usual suspects are now carrying the story (e.g. see here, here and here)  and framing it in whatever manner suiting a media campaign for what is turning into a proxy war against Iran.

The official press release of Mapna, on the kidnapping of the Iranian engineers in Homs, can be accessed here …

Press TV, a media organ of Iranian state, reported the kidnapping of Iranian engineers, in Homs, from late December 2011. A picture is published in a more recent news item of some of the captives and substantiates the claims of the video producers that at least two of the captives were engineers working in the city of Homs. Other than the engineers taken captive, though it is not clear why an armed group would kidnap these engineers, Press TV reports the kidnapping of Iranian pilgrims, according to a foreign ministry spokesman, in a trip from Aleppo to Damascus. It is not clear if some of those appearing in the video were pilgrims but considering the discrepancies in the claims of those filming the footage, including the strange presence of engineers as captives, there is serious doubt that the captives are military personnel.

Rather the full knowledge of the terms of intervention should direct a position that is both supportive of those revolting against a dictatorship but while opposing any military intervention led by these same external actors:

In other words, Syria is being used by various powers, including the United States and Saudi Arabia and their chorus, as an occasion to accomplish their own objectives in the region – reactionary ones, to be sure, in terms of the interests of most people in the region as the decades behind us attest, and as the current uprisings against the “fruits” of such objectives make clearer even to some skeptics. That does not mean, that we should withdraw our opposition and halt the struggle against dictatorship in Syria. It only serves to remind us how not to do it

Bashar al-Assad’s recent speech

Bashar al-Assad also harked back to the armed revolt faced by Hafeth al-Assad, striking similarities to the period and the need to persist until a final ‘victory’ over what he termed as armed terrorists. He reminded his listeners that the economy is still in a good condition; Syria will now seek to produce for itself and trade with non-Western countries, amidst the sanctions. The intent, it seems, was to signal that there will be no chance of his own step-down (something rumoured before the speech) and he sends this message to his own support base, to make clear that this uprising will be brutally quelled and this could possibly take, as was the case with his father, a few years.