Jarba: we will block arms from extremists because they will kill us if we don't

This is a very interesting wide-ranging interview with Ahmed Jarba, the president of the Syrian opposition’s National Coalition, with the Lebanese television channel LBC.

Perhaps unlike previous public appearances, he looks very confident, calm and diplomat-like. In the interview, he speaks about extremists and corrupt individuals within the anti-Assad camp whom the opposition will fight against. One of the interesting points in the interview is that there is no escaping the fact that the rebels will fight extremists, or takfirists (hardliners, Al Qaeda type) as he called them.

He also discusses the expected US-led action against President Bashar Al Assad's regime; other topics include Saudi and Qatari role, Hizbollah and Russia, and Kurds.

Here is a rundown of the interview:

He dismissed the claims that he was appointed by the Saudis, or as the interviewer described the “Saudi kitchen”. He said the Saudi role was restricted to preventing other countries from interfering in the vote.

“Usually, countries would tell us on whom we should agree but this time we were told to discuss it among ourselves and agree on any figure”.

“I am a member of the Democratic Bloc, led by Michel Kilo. When the Bloc chose me, neither the Qataris nor the Saudis knew that. I have allies among the FSA [ranks], revolutionary forces and even the Muslim Brotherhood. The Brotherhood, who are supposed to be allies to Qatar, their votes were in my favour and my deputy is Farouq Tayfour [the Brotherhood’s deputy leader]. In fact, the Brotherhood have more representation in the Coalition’s political bureau than before”.

“I have been close to the FSA and I was one of the early ones to support fighters and militarise the revolution. So my backing by the FSA got me here.”

In response to statements by some in the opposition that Ahmed Jarba would be more dangerous to the revolution than Assad. He said “yes, I am more dangerous on the revolution, but on the dark and corrupt part of the revolution. The revolution is not made up of pure angels or pure devils”. He conceded that some of those include those who took money that was meant to be spent on the revolution and stole it.

“All we want from the West is to get rid of Hizbollah and Iran and Iraq from Syria and neutralise Russia. The Free Syrian Army can take Assad on its own”.

“The West does not provide us with weapons but we can get weapons from our allies. There has never been a revolution without allies and patrons. After the Ghouta attack, weapons will come (quality weapons).”

“We will make sure the weapons won’t fall in the hands of the takfirists simply because if they get the weapons, these takfirists will use them to kill us first” (the moderate ones).

About the strikes, Ahmed Jarba says the strikes will be “hurtful” to the regime. “They will paralyse and damage the regime [forces] and they will target the regime’s military machinery”. He said civilians should not worry at all. The strikes will target specific areas, military one.

He denied that the US action will target jihadists. He said there is no such plan.

About Geneva, he said he isn’t even willing to speak about Geneva unless after the regime is punished. We will go to Geneva 2 after the strike. It might even be Geneva 3. And we will not accept Assad to be part of any Geneva.

He said Lavrov told him nine months ago that the West will not intervene in Syria and that if the West does act, Russia will not intervene.

On Takfirists, “there is a national interest that we get rid of them. We haven’t done anything against them yet but we will do [something] in the future.

He joked that if the Lebanese want to start a revolution, they should let us know because we will make sure they get the funding from our same sources.

Other statements include: the operation is coming. Let Hizbollah (the Shia party in Lebanon) come to help Assad, we will welcome it. Nasrallah came to fight in a battle in which he has no interest, but due to orders from Iran. We are banking on a military coup; that is very possible.

On minorities, he said there are Alawites (Monthir Makhos, the ambassador in France) and Christians and Michel Kilo on the side of the revolution. On the other hand, he said, there are tribal leaders like me and Sunnis who are still with Assad.

On the kidnapping of Christians, he said kidnapping is a product of the chaos and that there are tribal and Sunni religious leaders who have been kidnapped.

About the Kurds, he said the change of Syria’s name from Syrian Arab Republic to Syrian Republic is not a compromise. Syria will remain Arab and that Kurds have no interest in making it otherwise. We agreed and they’re in the process of joining the Coalition. And there will be a referendum on all of these issues.