Moderate Syrian Rebels: We’d Work With Israel to Oust Assad

An unnamed Syrian military defector turned “senior” commander in the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) says his faction is open to “collaboration” with the Israeli military in imposing regime change in Syria, particularly if it means getting access to more advanced weaponry.

The FSA commander went on to warn that such collaboration was only possible if done in “utter secrecy,” a goal probably not advanced by him openly talking about it in the top story of the Times of Israel.

The rest of his interview with the Times reads much as every other FSA interview in every other paper does, complaining about the US weapons sent to them being insufficient, and promising that they’d ensure more advanced weapons would never fall into the hands of al-Qaeda or other Islamist factions.

The FSA’s position in the rebellion is as an increasingly minor power, which has lost most of its northern territory to various rival factions. They retain a presence in the border town of Daraa, near Jordan, but even in the south al-Qaeda’s Jabhat al-Nusra is increasingly taking the front-line role.