Syrian opposition leader not giving up on appeal for anti-aircraft weapons
The Syrian National Coalition is trying to convince Congress and the administration that US anti-aircraft missiles can compel Russia — and Iran — to abandon Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
As the Western-backed Syrian opposition makes its rounds in Washington, it’s facing a recurrent question from skeptical lawmakers and administration officials: What, exactly, is the endgame?
The opposition’s main request — anti-aircraft weapons — is by now well-known. So is the US response to date: There’s no military solution to the conflict, and the weapons could fall into the wrong hands.
In an exclusive interview with Al-Monitor, a senior adviser to Syrian National Coalition President Ahmad Jarba said the conflict won’t end until Russia ceases to support President Bashar al-Assad. And without a shift in the balance of power on the ground, she said, that’s never going to happen.
“If the Russians see, oh [the Americans] are serious now, they are going to arm them, [they’ll decide] let’s talk again about Geneva, let’s talk again about a political solution,” Rime Allaf, Jarba’s adviser for public diplomacy, told Al-Monitor in an interview at the opposition’s Washington-area hotel on Friday. “This is our way to the political solution, with the Russians, to get in and change their position. We understand that nothing is going to change without the Russians doing something about it.”
