25 February 2013

By Mshari Al-Zaydi

The news that we hear-both sincere and false-regarding the presence of ?jihadists? among the Syrian revolutionaries rising up against the Bashar al-Assad regime is deliberate and characterized by an intent to distort reality.

Such news most often features the so-called Nusra Front (meaning the Support Front) which is a particularly mysterious group. The most that we can find out about this ?front? is that it is made up of diverse groups fighting against Assad's army, security apparatus, and Shabiha militia. There are also reports about the presence of Jordanian, Libyan and even Chechen and Saudi youth in the ranks of these groups which are fighting, tooth and nail, to ?support? those being killed, displaced, tortured and raped at the hands of Assad's forces.

I know that some people prefer not to talk about this in order not to gloat at the Assad regime finally getting its comeuppance. However it would be best to deal with this issue in a sincere and transparent manner. As for being glad at the evident weakening of the Assad regime's position, not to mention the position that Moscow Tsar Putin, Tehran Mullah Khamenei, and Beirut Preacher Nasrallah now find themselves in, this is normal. The presence of such groups in Syria, which only arrived in the latter stages of the life of the revolution, does not grant them a pardon for their deadly crimes, or at the very least their support and protection of the killers. Rather this serves as more damning evidence regarding the extent of the destruction and desolation overseen by the Assad regime and its international supporters against the vulnerable Syrian people. This forced the Syrians to resort to anybody willing to extend a helping hand against Assad's killing machine, even if this were the devil himself. In addition to this, Assad's security-based regime, along with Tehran, previously suffered the presence of Al-Qaeda linked groups on numerous occasions in the past. This is not to mention Fatah al-Islam in the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp in Lebanon, nor the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) harboring of Al-Qaeda commanders in Iran. Therefore Damascus and Tehran are hardly in the position to offer advice regarding the dangers of cooperation with terrorists.

As for the second issue, the arrival of resistance groups, or shall we say jihadists, in Syria represents a natural result of the international community's failure to deal with the Syrian crisis, if this was not by design. This is the natural result of the violent transgressions carried out by Assad and his forces, Nasrallah's militia, the IRGC officers, and Russian ?experts? which all led to feeling of hopelessness and futility in those who found themselves in the cross-hairs.

This is the reality, and what goes around comes around.

A Saudi journalist and expert on Islamic movements and Islamic fundamentalism as well as Saudi affairs. Mshari is Asharq Al-Awsat's opinion page Editor, where he also contributes a weekly column. Has worked for the local Saudi press occupying several posts at Al -Madina newspaper amongst others. He has been a guest on numerous news and current affairs programs as an expert on Islamic.