Inside Syria: The Backstory of Their Civil War and What the World Can Expect (35 page)

30
. Hersh, “Whose Sarin?”

31
. Ibid.

32
. Eliot Higgins, “Responses to the Final UN Report into the Use of Chemical Weapons in Syria—Part 2,”
Brown Moses Blog
, December 14, 2013,
http://brown-moses.blogspot.com/2013/12/responses-to-final-un-report-into-use_14.html
.

33
. B. Barakat, interview with the author.

34
. Syrian minister of justice Najm al-Ahmad, interview with the author, Damascus, November 16, 2013.

35
. Higgins, “Responses to the Final UN Report into the Use of Chemical Weapons in Syria.”

36
. Dan Kaszeta, phone interview with the author, London, February 18, 2014.

37
. Al-Ahmad, interview with the author.

38
. B. Barakat, interview with the author.

39
. Joshua Landis, phone interview with the author, December 11, 2013.

40
. “Syrian Forces May Have Used Gas Without Assad's Permission,”
Reuters
, September 13, 2013,
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/08/us-syria-crisis-germany-idUSBRE98707B20130908
.

41
. Gareth Porter, “New Data Raise Further Doubt on Official View of August 21 Gas Attack in Syria,” Truthout, April 29, 2014,
http://truth-out.org/news/item/23368-new-data-raise-further-doubt-on-official-view-of-aug-21-gas-attack-in-syria
.

42
. Ernesto Londoño and Greg Miller, “CIA Begins Delivering Weapons to Syrian Rebels,”
Washington Post
, September 12, 2013,
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/cia-begins-weapons-delivery-to-syrian-rebels/2013/09/11/9fcf2ed8-1b0c-11e3-a628-7e6dde8f889d_story.html
.

43
. Reese Erlich, “From Surrender Monkey to Closest Ally,” Common Dreams, September 1, 2013,
https://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/09/01-0
.

44
. Oliver Holmes, “Syria Lets UN Inspect Gas Attack Site, Washington Says Too Late,”
Reuters
, August 25, 2013,
http://in.reuters.com/article/2013/08/25/syria-crisis-idINDEE97M0C620130825
.

45
. Mark Landler and Eric Schmitt, “White House Says Syria Has Used Chemical Arms,”
New York Times
, April 25, 2013,
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/26/world/middleeast/us-says-it-suspects-assad-used-chemical-weapons.html?pagewanted=all
.

46
. Harriet Alexander, “Syria: If Bashar al-Assad Hands Over Chemical Weapons, We Will Not Attack, Says John Kerry,”
Telegraph
, September 9, 2013,
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/10295638/Syria-If-Bashar-al-Assad-hands-over-chemical-weapons-we-will-not-attack-says-John-Kerry.html
.

47
. William R. Polk, “Reflections on the Syrian Chemical Weapons Issue and the Possibility of Ending the Civil War,” Syria Comment, September 15, 2013,
http://www.joshualandis.com/blog/syrian-chemical-weapons-possibility-ending-civil-war-william-r-polk/
.

48
. Bob Kesling, “Lessons from US Arms Destruction,”
Wall Street Journal
, September 12, 2013,
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB20001424127887324549004579069561052663626
.

49
. Nicholas Blanford, “Hezbollah Marks Major Triumph as Qusayr Tips Back into Assad Camp,”
Christian Science Monitor
, June 5, 2013,
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2013/0605/Hezbollah-marks-major-triumph-as-Qusayr-tips-back-into-Assad-camp
.

50
. Haj Ghassan, interview with the author, Hermel, Lebanon, June 7, 2013.

51
. Sarah Birke, “How al-Qaeda Changed the Syrian War,”
New York Review of Books
, December 27, 2013,
http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2013/dec/27/how-al-qaeda-changed-syrian-war/
.

52
. Chris Looney, “Al-Qaeda's Governance Strategy in Raqqa,” Syria Comment, December 8, 2013,
http://www.joshualandis.com/blog/al-qaedas-governance-strategy-raqqa-chris-looney/
.

53
. Mohammed al-Attar, “Al Raqqa: The Reality of the Military Brigades, the Administration of the Liberated City and the Revolutions to Come,” Republic GS, September 16, 2013,
http://therepublicgs.net/2013/09/16/al-raqqa-the-reality-of-the-military-brigades-the-administration-of-the-liberated-city-and-the-revolutions-to-come/
.

54
. Birke, “How al-Qaeda Changed the Syrian War.”

55
. Michael R. Gordon, Mark Landler, and Anne Barnard, “US Suspends Nonlethal Aid to Syria Rebels,”
New York Times
, December 11, 2013,
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/12/world/middleeast/us-suspends-nonlethal-aid-to-syrian-rebels-in-north.html
.

56
. Adam Entous and Rima Abushakra, “Moderate Syrian Rebels Try to Recover after Islamists Take Over Headquarters. US Changes Account of Commander Fleeing Syria to Turkey during Incursion,”
Wall Street Journal
, December 12, 2013,
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303293604579254162228246876
.

57
. Associated Press, “Syrian Rebels Name New Military Commander,”
Washington Post
, February 17, 2014,
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/syria-says-us-created-negative-climate-in-geneva/2014/02/16/d19b6128-977d-11e3-ae45-458927ccedb6_story.html
.

58
. Ben Hubbard and Karam Shoumali, “Top Military Body against Syria's Assad Is in Chaos, Undermining Fight,”
New York Times
, February 23, 2014,
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/24/world/middleeast/top-military-body-against-syrias-assad-is-in-chaos-undermining-fight.html
.

59
. John Hudson, “US Weighing Closer Ties with Hardline Islamists in Syria,”
Foreign Policy
, December 17, 2013,
http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/12/16/us_weighing_closer_ties_with_hardline_islamists_in_syria#sthash.b9QyA3KZ.dpuf
.

60
. Anne Barnard and Nick Cumming-Bruce, “Syrian Rebels Sketch Peace Plan That Omits Demand for Assad's Ouster,”
New York Times
, February 12, 2014,
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/13/world/middleeast/syria.html
.

61
. Maria Abi-Habib and Stacy Meichtry, “Saudis Agree to Provide Syrian Rebels with Mobile Antiaircraft Missiles,”
Wall Street Journal
, February 14, 2014,
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304703804579382974196840680
.

62
. “Leen,” interview with the author, Damascus, November 2013.

CHAPTER 7. WHO SUPPORTS ASSAD?

1
. Dr. Bassam Barakat, interview with the author, Damascus, November 14, 2013.

2
. Kourosh Ziabari, “Sharmine Narwani: Syrian Opposition Is Not United
and Cohesive,”
Fars News
, December 9, 2013,
http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13920916001486
.

3
. David W. Lesch,
Syria: The Fall of the House of Assad
(New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012), p. 52.

4
. Bishop Armash Nalbandian, interview with the author, Damascus, November 14, 2013.

5
. Alaa Ebrahim, interview with the author, Damascus, November 17, 2013.

6
. Feras Dieb, interview with the author, Tartus, Syria, October 8, 2011.

7
. Shafika Dieb, interview with the author, Tartus, Syria, October 9, 2011.

8
. Mahmood Dieb, interview with author, Tartus, Syria, October 9, 2011.

9
. Wafaa Dieb, interview with the author, Tartus, Syria, October 8, 2011.

10
. Aboud Dandachi, “Observations of a Homsi Living in Tartous,” Syria Comment, January 21, 2014,
http://www.joshualandis.com/blog/observations-homsi-living-tartous/
.

11
. “Poorest Countries in the Middle East,” Aneki,
http://www.aneki.com/poorest_middle_east.htm
.

12
. Nabil Samman, interview with the author, Damascus, October 5, 2011.

13
. Bouthaina Shaban, interview with the author, Damascus, October 5, 2011.

14
. Nabil Toumeh, interview with the author, Damascus, October 3, 2011.

15
. Nabil Sukkar, interview with the author, Damascus, October 5, 2011.

16
. Dr. Bassam Barakat, interview with the author, Damascus, November 4, 2013.

17
. Jason Samenow, “Drought and Syria: Manmade Climate Change or Just Climate?”
Washington Post
, September 9, 2013,
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/wp/2013/09/09/drought-and-syria-manmade-climate-change-or-just-climate
.

18
. US Energy Information Administration, “Syria,” February 18, 2014,
http://www.eia.gov/countries/cab.cfm?fips=SY
.

19
. World Bank, “Country and Region Specific Forecasts and Data,”
http://www.worldbank.org/en/publication/global-economic-prospects/data?variable=NYGDPMKTPKDZ®ion=MNA
.

20
. Rana Issa, interview with the author, Damascus, October 6, 2011.

21
. Anonymous clothing store owner, interview with the author, Damascus, October 2011.

22
. Hagop, interview with the author, Damascus, November 2013.

23
. Loveday Morris, “Syrian Islamist Rebels Kill and Kidnap Hundreds of Civilians, Rights Group Says,”
Washington Post
, October 10, 2013,
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/syrian-islamist-rebels-killed-or-kidnapped-hundreds-of-civilians-rights-goup-says/2013/10/10/9ceaac8a-31e9-11e3-9c68-1cf643210300_story.html
.

24
. For further background see “Armenian Genocide,” Armenian National Institute,
http://www.armenian-genocide.org/genocide.html
.

25
. Nalbandian, interview with the author.

26
. Father Simon Faddul, interview with the author, Beirut, May 31, 2013.

27
. Nalbandian, interview with author.

28
. Hagop, interview with the author.

29
. Sheik Abdul Salaam al-Harash, interview with the author, Damascus, November 14, 2013.

30
. Hagop, interview with the author.

31
. Nalbandian, interview with the author.

32
. Hagop, interview with the author.

33
. Nalbandian, interview with the author.

34
. Amira Hana, interview with the author, Damascus, November 17, 2013.

35
. Nalbandian, interview with the author.

36
. Nick Cumming-Bruce, “Top UN Rights Official Links Assad to Crimes in Syria,”
New York Times
, December 2, 2013,
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/03/world/middleeast/top-un-rights-official-links-assad-to-crimes-in-syria.html
.

37
. Maryam, interview with the author, Zahle, Lebanon, May 2013.

38
. Most Reverend Archbishop Issam Darwish, interview with the author, Zahle, Lebanon, May 31, 2013.

39
. Joseph, interview with the author, Zahle, Lebanon, May 31, 2013.

40
. For regularly updated figures on Syrian refugees in Lebanon, see the UNHCR website,
http://data.unhcr.org/syrianrefugees/country.php?id=122
.

41
. For updated figures on all Syrian refugees, see the UNHCR website,
http://data.unhcr.org/syrianrefugees/regional.php
.

42
. Basem Shabb, interview with the author, Beirut, June 4, 2013.

43
. Elie El-Hindy, interview with the author, Lebanon, June 5, 2013.

44
. Faddul, interview with the author.

45
. El-Hindy, interview with the author.

46
. Anonymous, interview with the author, Syria, October 2011.

47
. Hugh Macleod and Annasofie Flamand, “Syria: Brutally Violent Shabiha Militia Member Tells It Like It Is,”
Global Post
, June 15, 2012,
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/middle-east/syria/120614/syria-shabiha-thug-assad-mafia-guns-smuggling-violence-houla
.

48
. Ibid.

49
. Michael Jansen “Russia and Iran Must Stop Enabling Syrian Government to Remain in Power, Warns Kerry,”
Irish Times
, February 18, 2014,
http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/middle-east/russia-and-iran-must-stop-enabling-syrian-government-remain-in-power-warns-kerry-1.1694963
.

50
. Ebrahim, interview with the author.

51
. Peter Beaumont, “Syria: Massacres of Sunni Families Reported in Assad's Heartland,”
Observer
, May 4, 2013,
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/may/04/syrian-sunni-families-die-in-assads-heartland
.

52
. Anne Barnard and Hania Mourtada, “An Atrocity in Syria, with No Victim Too Small,”
New York Times
, May 15, 2013,
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/15/world/middleeast/grisly-killings-in-syrian-towns-dim-hopes-for-peace-talks.html
.

53
. Stephanie Nebehay, “Syrian Forces behind Last May's Banias Massacres as Government and Rebels Committed War Crimes, UN Reports,”
Reuters
, September 11, 2013,
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/11/syria-banias-massacres_n_3906350.html
.

54
. Ebrahim, interview with the author.

55
. “Leen,” interview with the author.

CHAPTER 8. WHY IRAN BACKS SYRIA

1
. For more details on the 2009 Iranian Green Movement, see Reese Erlich,
Conversations with Terrorists: Middle East Leaders on Politics, Violence, and Empire
(Sausalito, CA: PoliPoint Press, 2010), p. 93.

2
. Jubin Goodarzi, “Iran and Syria,” in
The Iran Primer
, United States Institute of Peace,
http://iranprimer.usip.org/resource/iran-and-syria
.

3
. James Zogby, “The Rise and Fall of Iran in Arab and Muslim Eyes—A New Poll,” Wilson Center, March 5, 2013,
http://www.wilsoncenter.org/event/the-rise-fall-iran-arab-and-muslim-eyes-new-poll
.