Jarba Says Iran, Hizbullah Now Running Syria
Opposition leader Ahmad Jarba said Syria is now being run by regime allies Iran and Hizbullah, with President Bashar Assad out of the picture, in an interview published Sunday.
Jarba also told the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat that Syrian rebels have seized control of "at least half" of the country, 29 months into an anti-Assad uprising.
Assad is "a killer and a criminal, and... he has collapsed," the National Coalition chief charged.
The opposition leader reiterated the rebels' insistence that any settlement must exclude Assad, demanding that he be "punished for the war crimes he has committed against the Syrian people".
More than 100,000 people have been killed since the conflict broke out in mid-March 2011, the U.N. says.
Assad "no longer runs Syria. The real rulers of Syria are the Iranian (elite) Revolutionary Guard... with the participation of Hizbullah fighters," Jarba said.
Tehran is Assad's main regional backer, while Hizbullah has sent in troops from Lebanon to help the army fight the anti-regime rebellion.
Jarba said that supplying the rebel Free Syrian Army with sophisticated weaponry would "change the course of the revolution," despite Western fears that the arms could land in the hands of extremists.
Source: Agence France Presse
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