News Analysis

TEL AVIV, Israel –  Syrian rebels have cheered Israel’s strikes against Syrian government facilities, while the Syrian government has said the attacks prove Israel is backing the rebels.

Nothing could be farther from the truth. Israel is not engaging in the Syrian civil war. Instead, it is striking early blows in Israel’s possible next war: against Iran’s Lebanese proxy, Hezbollah.

“This attack had nothing to do with the Syrian civil war. The big story is Iran and Hezbollah, not Syria,” Professor Eyal Zisser, a Syrian expert at Tel Aviv University, told NBC News Monday.

“Israel’s message is that we want to change the rules of the game. For the last 20 years Iran provided all kinds of weapons to Hezbollah through Syria. Now this is the end of the story. Israel will no longer accept the rearming of Hezbollah,” Zisser added.

Analysts here say there are four weapons systems on Israel’s blacklist, whose transfer through Syria would trigger air attacks: guided ground to ground rockets like the Iranian Fateh 110’s reportedly destroyed in this weekend’s attack; chemical weapons; land to sea missiles like Russian Yakhont missiles that can hit a ship 200 miles at sea at speeds of up to Mach 2; and anti-aircraft rockets like the SAM 17s that would endanger Israel’s control of the skies.

Israeli analysts have taken to calling these weapons “game-changers,” whose transfer must be stopped at any price. But others point out that fearsome as they are, Israel has answers to all of them and is in no real danger of losing its superiority against a relatively small outfit like Hezbollah.

Where is Syria’s ‘red line’?
So the public debate in Israel, which the military has kept out of, revolves around this question: Where is Syria’s so –called “red line”? At what point will Israel’s attacks against targets inside Syria provoke the Syrian leadership into retaliating against Israel? Is Israel walking a tightrope that will lead inevitably to a sudden clash with Syria?

Israel takes comfort in its intelligence assessment that President Bashar al-Assad would rather absorb the blows and the humiliation than confront Israel. The assumption is that Assad knows any confrontation would lead to a brutal Israeli attack, probably against his air force and air fields, and that would lead to his defeat at the hands of the Syrian rebels.

But Israel is also in a quandary about its best interests: What is better for Israel: Syria under the Iranian-backed leadership of Assad? Syria under a rebel-Sunni-Islamist coalition? Or, most likely, the breakup of Syria into ethnic and religious cantons?

With no clear answer, Israel is electing to stay well out of it.

Its actions against Hezbollah on Syrian soil could backfire if Syria chooses to retaliate. So far, there is no real sign of that – although reports from Syria this weekend suggest that Syrian missiles are now trained on Israel.

But while maintaining a heightened state of alert, and positioning two Iron Dome anti-missile systems in the northern towns of Haifa and Safed, Israel is also downplaying any threat, its citizens are paying little attention, and an order to civilian aircraft to stay out of the northern skies is expected to be lifted today.

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Ammar Cheikhomar / NBC News

The Old Market in Antakya, Turkey, has become a frequent stop for jihadists on their way to or from Syria, where they are battling the regime of President Bashar Assad.

ANTAKYA, Turkey -- In the Old Market of the ancient city of Antakya, there is a palpable sense of unease.

For wandering among the ordinary shoppers and tourists drawn to this border town -- known in antiquity as Antioch -- are hardened fighters like Abu Muntaser Alliby.

“I wish to die in Syria while I'm defending the oppressed there,” said the 27-year-old Islamist fighter from Libya, a veteran of three six-week tours in Syria who adopted a false name when he took up arms.

Antakya has gone from a tranquil stop on the tourist trail sometimes called "Tuscany with minarets" to a key staging post for the thousands of foreign fighters who have flocked to wage jihad against President Bashar Assad in Syria, bolstering the ranks of al Qaeda and Taliban-style militias.

The presence of Alliby and others like him has sparked angry protests by local people in the city. But others have profited, with shops springing up to supply the new demand for camouflage clothing, communication devices, backpacks and other equipment.

Their presence has also created a headache for the rebel Free Syrian Army. While they are allies in the struggle to topple Assad, their goal of establishing one Islamist state covering the entire Arab region is far removed from the FSA’s hopes of a democratic Syria.

And they are also cited as the main reason why the U.S. and other Western countries have not supplied the rebels with arms -- as some may end up in the hands of Alliby and his comrades.

Some analysts now believe this policy has inadvertently helped groups like Jabhat al-Nusra -- officially allied with al Qaeda in Iraq -- and the Syrian Islamic Front, an umbrella body of disparate groups with a similar ideology to the Taliban. At the moment, they're the only ones getting a steady stream of money and weapons and therefore are more attractive to would-be fighters than the poorly armed FSA.

But, listening to Alliby, it’s easy to see why the Obama administration is nervous and Israel might decide to take military action.

“We all have the same goal, which is to bring down the Syrian infidel regime and raise the banner ‘no God but Allah’ in Syria,” he said as he looked through the market for a backpack.

Ammar Cheikhomar / NBC News

The Old Market in picturesque Antakya has become a haunt for jihadists on their way to or from Syria. Many in the town are upset by their presence, but the fighters are buying, so vendors are selling.

“I guess that this is  the goal of every Muslim in Syria. ... We are all Muslims and we all ask for the jihad and hope to die while we are defending our religion,” he said. “I said goodbye to my parents and friends. I don't want to go back. I hope that I die in Syria or in Palestine.”

“I think any mujahed [jihadi] in Islam wishes to fight in Palestine against the Jews,” he added. “And I hope that we can have a center of Muslim mujahedeen [holy warriors] in Syria to proceed from Syria to liberate Palestine. Jihad starts from Syria and ends in Jerusalem.”

Alliby, who said he fought in Libya during the revolt against Moammar Gadhafi during which one of his brothers was killed, added that while the Libyan dictator was bad, Assad was significantly worse.

“He is not a man; he is a monster who doesn't know the meaning of humanity and doesn't respect anyone in his dirty war -- not the young, not the old, no woman and no child,” he said. “We see what is happening daily in Syria and how the people suffer there. I mean killing and destruction and displacement.”

Alliby said he was a member of a jihadist Islamist organization. He refused to name the group, but he was unusually open. Most jihadists refuse point-blank to speak to Western media.

In addition to jihadists, Antakya has also drawn journalists from around the world. One hotel is known as the BBC’s base, another is home to al-Jazeera. The jihadists, too, have their favorite hotel at a discreet distance from media camps.

It is at the bargain end of the market, but -- unlike the cheapest establishments -- provides an Internet connection and breakfast.

The Free Syrian Army might not run to such luxuries. Its fighters literally count their bullets and struggle to buy equipment in marked contrast to the well-funded, well-armed Islamist groups.

Luay Mukdad, political and media coordinator for the Free Syrian Army, admitted some FSA groups were “short on weapons, short on money and communications, so that’s what’s forced them to cooperate” with extremist fighters.

“Let me be honest, as long as Jabhat al-Nusra is holding their ground against Bashar Assad, there’s no problem,” he said.

Al-Nusra was designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. in December and formally announced its alliance with al Qaeda in Iraq last month.

Mukdad said the Islamists fighters’ strength had been exaggerated in the media, but he warned that unless the West helped the FSA they would become stronger and more dangerous -- for Syria and the Middle East. While the Islamists hate the West and shun their support, the FSA believes it cannot win without its aid.

Ammar Cheikhomar / NBC News

Though angry protests have sprung up against Islamist fighters stopping in Antakya, so have shops to supply the new demand for camouflage clothing, communication devices, backpacks and other equipment used in war.

“We want Syria to be a civil country and we want to build our democracy,” he said, envisioning a country with “respect for all people” after the downfall of Assad.

Mukdad said the FSA would not allow extremists to take over the country.

“If Jabhat al-Nusra choose to be like al Qaeda or something and start trying to force people to do all the extremist things, like to force … the girls to put on the hijab or to do anything, the Free Syrian Army will protect the Syrian people,” he said. “Make us stronger. We want to protect our country and not let these people steal our future.”

Nadim Shehadi, a Middle East expert at the U.K.-based Chatham House think tank, said the best solution to the civil war would be an international military intervention, but he accepted that was not going to happen. The second-best option was arming the FSA, he said.

“What’s pushing people to join the jihadists is they are well-funded, well organized and they have the weapons,” he said. “They get them from private sources in the Gulf mainly. The others [non jihadist groups], they have to count their bullets.”

But Shehadi said that most ordinary Syrians now believed that the U.S. was on their side and the idea of Taliban-style rule was “not something that would fly” in ethnically diverse Syria.

“America used to be unpopular on the Arab street, when it used to support dictators. What’s emerging now is … an indication of American soft power,” he said. “[Syrians] want to be more like America than they want to be like Iran, Gaza or North Korea.”

Ammar Cheikhomar / NBC News

Vendors at the Old Market have found that jihadists coming in and out of Syria can be good customers. The militants are generally well funded compared with mainstream rebel forces.

Professor Peter Neumann, director of the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Police Violence at King's College London, carried out a study that estimated there were 5,500 foreign fighters in Syria, most from the Middle East and North Africa.

Like Mukdad and Shehadi, he said the West should arm the FSA to provide a counter to the hard-line Islamist or Salafist groups and accept this would mean some weapons would fall into their hands.

"We're so afraid of funding the wrong people ... but the absence of our funding has actually made that more likely because the only money that comes through right now is this hard-core Islamist money," Neumann said.

He added, however, that all was not what it seemed in Syria.

"There has been in the past a huge incentive [for commanders] to pretend they are Salafist in order to get some weapons," he said. "There are perfectly secular commanders who've grown beards and who are flying the black flag of Islam on YouTube just in order to qualify for funding from Kuwait."

Ian Johnston reported from London.

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Khaled al-Hariri / Reuters

A destroyed car is pictured near the former Interior Ministry building after a blast in central Damascus on Tuesday killed at least 13 people and injured dozens more, according to state television and activists.

BEIRUT -- A bomb in central Damascus killed 13 people on Tuesday, state television said, a day after Prime Minister Wael al-Halki survived an attack on his convoy in the heart of the Syrian capital.

State television said 70 people were wounded, several critically. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that nine civilians and five soldiers had died.

Pro-government Al-Ikhbariya television showed firefighters running through thick smoke after the blast in Marjeh Square. Two bodies could be seen on the ground.

The target of the attack was not immediately clear. Footage showed the site of the blast was near the former Interior Ministry building on one of the capital's main roads.

Monday's attack on the prime minister's convoy killed six people in what has become an increasingly common tactic used by rebels.

A resident of Damascus, who lives a mile from the blast site, said the explosion shook the doors of her house.

"It must be huge for me to hear it like that. Casualties must be horrific because it is a super busy square at this time of day," she said over Skype.

Rebels have increased their attacks on Damascus, which include mortar fire from the contested suburbs, in a civil war that has cost more than 70,000 lives according to U.N. estimates.

A bomb in July killed four of President Bashar Assad's aides, including his brother-in-law Assef Shawkat and the defense minister.

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Inside a Syrian city split between rival militias

Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halki survived a bomb attack on his convoy in Damascus on Monday, state media and activists said, as rebels struck in the heart of President Bashar Assad's capital.

Six people were killed in the blast, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, the latest in a series of rebel attacks on government targets including a December bombing that wounded Assad's interior minister.

Halki wields little power, but the attack highlighted the rebels' growing ability to target symbols of Assad's authority in a civil war that has cost more than 70,000 lives, according to the United Nations.

AP

This photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA shows firefighters extinguishing burning cars after a blast in the Mazzeh neighborhood of Damascus, Syria, on Monday.

Assad picked Halki in August to replace Riyadh Hijab, who defected and escaped to neighboring Jordan just weeks after a Damascus bombing killed four of the president's top security advisers.

In comments released by the state news agency SANA but not shown on television, Halki was quoted as condemning the attack as a sign of "bankruptcy and failure of the terrorist groups," a reference to the rebels battling to overthrow Assad.

The blast shook the Mezze district soon after 9 a.m. local time (2 a.m. ET) and sent thick black smoke into the sky. The Observatory said one man accompanying Halki was killed as well as five passers-by.

State television showed firemen hosing down the charred and mangled remains of a car. Nearby was a large white bus, its windows blown out and its seats gutted by fire. Glass and debris were scattered across several lanes of a main road.

"The terrorist explosion in al-Mezze was an attempt to target the convoy of the prime minister. Doctor Wael al-Halki is well and not hurt at all," state television said.

It later broadcast footage of Halki, who appeared composed and unruffled, chairing what it said was an economic committee.

Mezze is part of a shrinking "Square of Security" in central Damascus, where many government and military institutions are based and where senior Syrian officials live.

Sheltered for nearly two years from the bloodshed and destruction ravaging much of the rest of Syria, it has been slowly sucked into violence as rebel forces based to the east of the capital launch mortar attacks and carry out bombings in the center.

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• Obama reiterates chemical weapons would be 'game-changer'
• Inside a Syrian city split between rival militias

This story was originally published on Mon Apr 29, 2013 4:37 AM EDT

Syrian government forces have used chemical weapons in the country’s civil war, the Israeli military’s top intelligence analyst said on Tuesday, citing photographic evidence of people "foaming from the mouth."

If the claim by Brigadier-General Itai Brun is confirmed, it would mean Syria’s President Bashar Assad has crossed what the State Department has previously described as a red line that would trigger some form of U.S. response. President Barack Obama also warned Assad using chemical weapons would be a "tragic mistake" that would have "consequences."

Brun told a conference at the Institute of National Security in Tel Aviv that photographs of victims showing foam coming out of their mouths and contracted pupils were signs that a deadly gas had been used.

"One of the main characteristics of the recent events in Syria is the increasing use of ground-to-ground missiles, rockets and chemical weapons by the Syrian regime. There is a wide-range usage of missile, rockets and more by the Syrian weapons array," he said, according to a translated transcript of his remarks provided by the Israel Defense Forces.

"According to our professional assessment, the regime has used deadly chemical weapons against armed rebels on a number of occasions in the past few months," he said.

"For instance, on March 19, 2013, victims suffered from shrunken pupils, foaming from the mouth, and other symptoms which indicate the use of deadly chemical weapons. The type of chemical weapons was likely sarin, as well as neutralizing and non-lethal chemical weapons," he added.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, sarin, a nerve agent, causes symptoms including loss of consciousness, convulsions, paralysis, and respiratory failure that can be fatal.

George Ourfalian / Reuters file

Animal carcasses lie on the ground after what residents, Syrian rebels and Assad's regime all said was a chemical weapon attack in Khan al-Assal near the northern city of Aleppo, on March 23.

In March, Assad's regime and the rebels blamed each other for what both said was a chemical-weapon attack in Aleppo.

Responding to Brun’s comments, Pentagon Press Secretary George Little said in a written statement that the United States “continues to assess reports of chemical weapons use in Syria.”

“The use of such weapons would be entirely unacceptable. We reiterate in the strongest possible terms the obligations of the Syrian regime to safeguard its chemical weapons stockpiles, and not to use or transfer such weapons to terrorist groups like Hezbollah,” he added.

On Monday, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said the use of chemical weapons by Assad's forces would be a "game changer" and the United States and Israel "have options for all contingencies," Reuters reported.

Hagel met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Tuesday, the news service said, a day after flying in an Israeli military helicopter over the occupied Golan Heights on the edge of the fighting in Syria that has entered its third year.

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"This is a difficult and dangerous time, this is a time when friends and allies must remain close, closer than ever," Hagel, in remarks to reporters before his talks with Netanyahu, said about the United States and Israel.

Secretary of State John Kerry, who was in Belgium for a NATO meeting on Tuesday, that he did not have information that confirmed that the Syrians had used chemical weapons.

Earlier he said the alliance needed to consider its role in the crisis, Reuters reported. "We should also carefully and collectively consider how NATO is prepared to respond to protect its members from a Syrian threat, including any potential chemical weapons threat," he added.

Kerry said that the planning the alliance had already done was appropriate. 

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Danny Gold

Young male and female fighters in the Kurdish militia known as the Popular Protection Units line up in formation in front of supporters in Ras Al Ayn, Syria. Some see the border city as indicative of what could come if the Assad regime falls, where rebel groups with competing agendas attempt to fill the vacuum of power.

RAS AL AYN, Syria -- Yilmaz fears a visit to his cousins and friends on the other side of town will end with him assassinated by a sniper's bullet.

Syrian dictator Bashar Assad's forces were forced out of this divided border city months ago. Despite a tenuous cease-fire, the presence of different rebel groups who previously clashed and now coexist side by side has left many on the edge, fearing another breakout of war.

Yilmaz ran afoul of the Popular Protection Units (YPG), the country's most powerful Kurdish militia, when he became affiliated with the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA). Some of his friends and relatives call him a traitor for siding with the FSA.

During the last phase of fighting, one of his cousins who, like him, had been an FSA activist, was killed by a YPG sniper. He knows the killer could be someone he spent his childhood with, or sees at family functions.

"Maybe my friends will kill me," the Kurdish former peace activist says. "Maybe one from them killed my cousin. It's complicated."

Some see this city as indicative of what could come if the Assad regime falls, where rebel groups with competing agendas attempt to fill the vacuum of power.

Danny Gold

A young rebel mans a checkpoint on a road leading to Ras Al Ayn, Syria.

Ras Al Ayn lies at the edge of Kurdish territory in the northeastern province of Hasakah near the border with Turkey. Though it is a majority Kurdish city, is it home to Christians, Chechens, Armenians and Arabs, and was once celebrated for its diversity and tolerance. It was one of the province's first city's to protest for the revolution.

Accounts differ on how the fighting started in Ras Al Ayn. In November, the FSA along with Islamist rebel groups like Jabhat Al Nusra and Ghuraba Al Sham attacked regime soldiers, eventually forcing them out. That coalition then clashed with the YPG.

A truce was eventually established, but quickly broken as the YPG and FSA again fought battles all over the city. After roughly two weeks of fighting, Syrian Christian dissident Michel Kilo arranged a cease-fire that has now held for nearly two months.

The city has still not recovered. Many residents fled during different phases of the fighting. While some semblance of normal life has returned, buildings still lay in ruins, many pockmarked with bullet holes. There is rarely electricity and water is scarce. Schools and hospitals have been ransacked and closed for months. Graffiti touting the different groups is spray-painted everywhere, and armed men from the rival factions are a constant presence.

Danny Gold

Weeks of fighting between rival factions have left homes and businesses in the Syrian city of Ras Al Ayn damaged, many beyond repair.

For some civilians caught in the crossfire, it's hard to draw a distinction. Alongside a road near where some of the most intense fighting took place, a group of Syrian-born Chechens relay stories of looting. "The Free Army and the YPG, they steal everything. We did not see freedom fighters, only thieves," said Tamer, a 47-year-old undertaker. "There isn't a difference between all these groups."

Outside a small cluster of shops near where a Syrian regime airstrike hit months ago, a butcher named Ahmed Shaabi laments that he has not been able to work for five days due to a lack of electricity. "This city has gone back a century," he said.

Rashid Abdullah, a construction worker sitting with Shaabi, thought the fighting in Ras Al Ayn played right into the hands of Assad. "It's wrong, it's all wrong. Our fight is with the regime," he said.

The Kurds make up roughly 10 percent of the Syrian population. The most powerful Kurdish political party, the Democratic Union Party (PYD), has sought to keep the war from encroaching in its territory, leading to a de facto truce of sorts with the regime.

This has drawn the ire of many rebel groups. They accuse the YPG, which is often seen as the political party's military wing, as being agents of the Assad regime. The YPG in turn accuses the FSA of being agents of Turkey and overrun with Islamists.

In Ras Al Ayn, this distrust resulted in months of conflict and nearly 300 deaths. 

Complicating things even further is the presence of a small brigade of Jabhat Al Nusra, the al Qaeda-affiliated Islamist group that is thought to be the most powerful jihadi faction. While JAN and the FSA often fight as allies, they've also clashed. The YPG claim to make no distinction between the Islamists and the FSA. 

Danny Gold

Photos of Kurdish rebels killed in battles line the walls at a house of martyrs in Ras Al Ayn, Syria.

On the YPG-controlled side of town in late March, a small crowd has come out for the opening of a house of martyrs, a community office dedicated to those killed in the fighting. Giant posters of slain fighters line the walls. Politicians and military commanders give speeches as a group of 20 young fighters, some who barely look out of high school, line up in formation clutching rifles and rocket-propelled grenades. When the ribbon is cut, the families of the deceased line up and greet the soldiers.

Not far away, a group of Free Syrian Army fighters known as the Mashaal Tammo brigade occupy a large house. One of the only mixed Arab and Kurdish fighting groups, the brigade is made up mostly of onetime peaceful protesters who, unlike the PYD, wanted to join the revolution early on. They eventually turned to the FSA.

"We took up arms and the reason was the PYD," says Marwan, a Kurd from Qamishli who fights with the brigade. "The PYD didn't give the people aid or anything, they pushed the people around."

The PYD has faced accusations of kidnapping and assassinating Kurds from opposing parties, including Kurdish activist and political leader Mashaal Tammo, for whom the brigade is named. Some Kurds see them as another authoritarian force trying to take control. They see the FSA as the only true proponents of the revolution.

Yilmaz is still focused on the revolution, but he's seen the toll it's taken on his city and grown weary. His only hope now is that the factions will focus their attacks on the regime.

"I hate what's happened in Ras Al Ayn," Yilmaz says. "The people, the civilians, so many of them have been killed. It's not the FSA's fault, it's not the YPG's fault, it's war. Just let peace stay in Ras Al Ayn."

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• Is end in sight for one of world's longest-running conflicts?
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DAMASCUS, Syria -- Mortar shells slammed into a cafeteria at Damascus University Thursday, killing at least 12 people and wounding 20, according to state media and an official. It was the deadliest in a string of such attacks on President Bashar Assad's seat of power, state media and an official said.

Rebels began firing shells at the capital earlier this year, and the strikes have become increasingly common in recent weeks as rebels clash with government troops on the city's east and south sides.

SANA via EPA

A wounded man receives medical treatment after a mortar attack on Damascus University, at Al Mouwasat hospital in Damascus, Syria, on Thursday. EDITOR'S NOTE: Photo distributed by the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA).

State-run TV said 12 people were killed when mortar shells struck the cafeteria of the university's architecture department in the central Baramkeh district. A Syrian official who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to give official statements said 20 people were wounded in the attack.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which came two days after rebels barraged Damascus with mortar shells that killed at least three people and wounded dozens.

The shelling rarely causes many casualties, but it has shattered the aura of normalcy the regime has tried to cultivate in Damascus.

The government blamed "terrorists," the term it uses for rebels fighting to oust Assad, and called the attack a "barbaric massacre."

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Government-run Al-Ikhbariya TV station showed footage of plastic tables and chairs turned upside down, shattered glass and pens and books scattered on the floor. Pools of blood were seen on the floor of the open-air cafeteria.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed the attack saying many of the wounded were in critical condition.

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'Chemical weapon' rockets fired in Syria, rebels say

Government forces in Syria used chemical weapons against rebels near Damascus, an opposition campaigner told Reuters on Monday. 

Rebels had surrounded an army base in the town of Adra, on the outskirts of Damascus, when soldiers used rocket launchers to fire the weapons at them, killing two fighters and wounding 23, according to activist Mohammad Doumani. The claim could not immediately be verified by NBC News.

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"Doctors are describing the chemical weapon used as phosphorus that hits the nervous system and causes imbalance and loss of consciousness,” Doumani told Reuters from the nearby town of Douma, where the wounded were transported for treatment.

“The two fighters were very close to where the rockets exploded and they died swiftly. The rest are being treated with Atropine," he added.

There was no independent confirmation of the attack, which follows the death of 26 people in a rocket attack near the city of Aleppo last week. The authorities and rebels accused each other of firing a missile carrying chemicals there.

On Tuesday, both the rebels and the government claimed a chemical weapon was used during fierce fighting, with each side blaming the other for the attack. 

Reporting from inside Syria is increasingly difficult, and independent confirmation of the use of chemical weapons was impossible to ascertain.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday announced that the United Nations will launch an investigation into the allegations.

However, the prospects for a quick conclusion to the probe will depend on cooperation from the warring parties and safety for investigators — problematic conditions in the chaos of the country's civil war, experts say.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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This story was originally published on Mon Mar 25, 2013 9:23 AM EDT

Amr Nabil / AP, file

The head of the Syrian National Coalition for Opposition and Revolutionary Forces Mouaz al-Khatib resigned Sunday.

The leader of the Western-backed Syrian opposition coalition resigned Sunday, destabilizing the rebels' two-year uprising against President Bashar Assad.

Mouaz al-Khatib, a respected preacher and moderate Islamist who had spearheaded the Syrian National Coalition since it was formed last November, said in a post on his Facebook page that he was following through on a vow to leave his position if unspecified “red lines” were crossed.

“I had promised our people … to resign if the situation reaches certain red lines. Today, I honor my promise and I resign from the National Coalition to be able to work with freedom not available through official institutions,” al-Khatib said.

“We have been slaughtered under the watchful eyes of the world for two years, in an unprecedented manner by a vicious regime,” he said  of the bloody civil war that has plunged the nation into chaos, leaving at least 70,000 people dead.

“Everything that happened to the Syrian people – from destruction of infrastructure, arrest of tens of thousands of their children, displacement of tens of thousands, and other tragedies – is not enough for the world to make an international decision to allow people to defend themselves,” al-Khatib added.

Al-Khatib’s resignation comes on the heels of his recent decision to offer Assad a negotiated exit from Syria, which received harsh criticism from many prominent figures in the opposition movement.

And despite al-Khatib’s protests, the coalition last week took steps to form a provisional government that would have weakened al-Khatib’s influence in domestic affairs, Reuters reported.

Coalition figures picked Islamist technocrat Ghasshan Hitto as the provisional government’s prime minister. Hitto is backed by the Muslim Brotherhood, according to Reuters.

The departure of Al-Khatib deals a significant blow to the moderate faction of the uprising, which many Westerners see as a safeguard against the rise of insurgent fighters linked to al-Qaeda.

The shake-up in the Syrian National Coalition, which is recognized by scores of nations and international bodies as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people, could potentially make Western powers more reluctant to sponsor rebels.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who appeared alongside al-Khatib in Rome when the U.S. announced additional aid to the Syrian opposition group in late February, said he was disappointed to see al-Khatib step down — but not surprised.

“I am personally sorry to see him go because I like him on a personal level,” Kerry told reporters on a trip to Baghdad on Sunday.

“The notion that he might resign has frankly been expressed by him on many different occasions in many different places,” Kerry added.

At the end of his Facebook post, al-Khatib said he plans to remain involved in efforts to bring down Assad’s regime.

“I will continue to work with my colleagues, those who seek the freedom for our people,” al-Khatib said.

“A little bit of patience, our people,” he added. “Isn’t the morning near?”

Related: Kerry urges Iraq to stop arms flow to Syria on Baghdad visit

Wael Hamzeh / EPA

Supporters of the Salafist Sheikh Ahmad al-Assir take part in a rally showing solidarity with the Syrian people in Beirut, Lebanon, on Feb. 8.

Syria warned it may strike at rebels hiding in neighboring Lebanon if the Lebanese army does not act, the state news agency SANA said on Friday, the second anniversary of the civil war.

Syria's Foreign Ministry told its Lebanese counterpart late on Thursday that a "large number" of militants had crossed Lebanon's northern border into the Syrian town of Tel Kalakh over the past two days, SANA said.

"Syria expects the Lebanese side to prevent these armed terrorist groups from using the borders as a crossing point, because they target Syrian people and are violating Syrian sovereignty," the diplomatic cable said.

It said Syria's "patience is not unlimited," even though "Syrian forces have so far exercised restraint from striking at armed gangs inside Lebanese territory."

Fighting near the border resulted in a large number of casualties, SANA said, before the gunmen retreated into Lebanon.

Lebanon has a policy of "dissociation" from the two-year civil war in Syria but officials say they feel their country is increasingly at risk of being dragged into a conflict that the United Nations says has killed 70,000 Syrians.

Threat to Lebanon's existence
U.N. refugee agency chief Antonio Guterres said on Friday that the Syrian conflict threatens Lebanon's existence.

"The international community should recognize that the Syrian crisis represents an existential threat to Lebanon and should show Lebanon ... much stronger support than has happened until now," he told reporters in Beirut.

Lebanon, a nation of 4 million, fought its own devastating civil war from 1975 to 1990 and has sectarian tensions among Christians and Sunni and Shiite Muslims that have been heightened by the fighting in Syria.

Tensions between Lebanese groups that support the Syrian opposition and those that support Syrian President Bashar Assad have been intensifying and have sometimes turned violent.

The International Committee of the Red Cross appealed to foreign powers Friday to press combatants in Syria to halt attacks on civilians and aid workers, saying all sides were violating the Geneva Conventions. 

"Many atrocities against civilians have been reported or witnessed over the past two years, and we have also seen indiscriminate attacks against civilians and the targeting of health-care personnel and aid workers," said Robert Mardini, head of ICRC operations for the Near and Middle East. 

Meanwhile, European Union governments rejected a Franco-British push on Friday to lift an EU arms embargo to allow weapons supplies to Syrian rebels, voicing fears this could spark an arms race and worsen regional instability.

France and Britain found little support for their proposal to ease the embargo at an EU summit in Brussels, EU diplomats said, although they asked the bloc's foreign ministers to look again at the issue next week.

"Nobody really is interested (in lifting the embargo)," an EU diplomat said. "There is no prospect of change any time soon."

EU governments want to support the rebels, but many expressed fears on Friday that allowing weapons to flow to them could lead to arms falling into the wrong hands -- especially Islamist militants in the rebel ranks -- and lead Assad's backers to step up arms deliveries to his government.

European Council President Herman van Rompuy said leaders had asked their foreign ministers to look at the issue "as a matter of priority" at a March 22-23 meeting in Dublin. 

Reuters

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