Former FSA leader: Assad's top generals without powers as Shiite militants rule

Translation by Yusra Ahmed

(Zaman Alwasl)- Former chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff of the rebel Free Syrian Army, Salim Idriss, said that current Syria’s government Defence minister is without any power even before the revolution.

However, there are attempts now to hold Fahed Jasim al-Fraij the accountability for Raqqa fall by the Islamic State group (IS), as Bashar al-Assad’s supporters looking for a scapegoat to justify latest humiliating defeats reflected by the Islamist rebels.

“Even the minor soldier in the Syrian Army knows that Minister of Defence cannot move a soldier, because everything is ruled by the security forces and the sectarian gangs like Hezbollah and Iranian Militias, we heard the comments of the Iraqi militias naming the Syrian soldiers as Assad’s rats.”

Idriss added that powerless position is applied even to Mohammed al-Shaar, the Minister of Interior, as the country is ruled by Shabiha, Iraqi and Iranian Militias, and the regime forces, which committed all crimes, and the Minister cannot say a word against them.

In regard to the “National Reconciliation Initiative” Idriss wondered: “how can that reconciliation work while 8 million Syrians are displaced, and most oil sources are under ISIS’s control? While Assad’s regime kept stealing the country’s treasure for decades, with the help of Iran, they make the country a complete wreck, the country’s economy is devastated and destroyed, covered with valueless notes printed in Russia, while the real money was transferred via airlines to Ukraine”.

The former head of Staff said angrily: “Assad does not care about the fate of his soldiers, or airports or other army’s troupes if they fell under ISIS’s control, as all that are means to keep the power in his hands”.

Idriss said that after all what happened regime’s loyalists must realize that Bashar has destroyed the country and the social fabric, he does not care about its supporters and their children, as he left his soldiers to die in al-Tabaqa and did nothing to save them. He added that thousands of Syrian young men are taken to death daily to keep Bashar in his position. It is time for Assad’s regime supporters in Latakia and Tartus’s countryside to move and say no to Bashar and demand his departure. “The country is now ruled by Hezbollah, and Iranian and Iraqi sectarian militia, and Bashar who brought them to the country, and instead of hitting ISIS’s bases in al-Raqqa and al-Tabaqa, he bombed Aleppo with explosive barrels” ended.

  Idriss concluded: “Syria is our country and Bashar does not represent us, he will leave the country and we will build the liberated strong and dignified Syria.”