As the United States scrambles to establish ties with emerging leaders in the Syrian opposition, President Barack Obama's administration is trying hard to avoid an exile-centric strategy that risks repeating the debacle of Iraq.

Steven Heydemann, a Middle East expert at the US Institute of Peace (USIP), who at the behest of the administration has been working with Syrian opposition figures for 10 months on a “day after” strategy for Syria, told Al-Monitor that Syrians active in the fight against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime have been able to join in discussions outside the country about a political transition. That includes a conference Heydemann attended this week in Cairo.

“There is an enormous effort underway to engage people within Syria,” he said.

Unlike the situation in Iraq, when the former President George W. Bush's administration relied on  long-time Iraqi exiles such as Ahmed Chalabi — self-promoters with their own political and financial agendas — to dictate the shape of a new iraqi government, the US has other options in Syria, Heydemann said. These involve direct consultations with those who are in the thick of the rebellion against the Assad regime.