Syrian Coalition: James Foley was Victim of the Failure to Empower Syrian Rebels

Mohammed Qaddah, vice president of the Syrian Coalition, said that the terrorist attack on the United States did not begin with the murder of journalist James Foley, as was stated by deputy national security advisor to the White House Ben Rhodes. “Rather, the terrorist attack against not only the United States but against all humanity began with the Assad regime’s murder of the Syrian people amid an unprecedented silence by the international community. The United States bears much of the responsibility for this horrible crime when it did not react to the Assad regime’s repeated crossing of the red lines it had drawn and warned against crossing. Therefore it is now imperative for of us to realize that the silence towards the wholesale killings and state terrorism committed anywhere in the world which has produced ISIS and other extremist groups is a real indicator of the expansion of extremism not only to the rest of the region but the entire world. From the very beginning we have many times warned the international community that Assad seeks to carry out its threat and set the region ablaze in case popular uprising against his rule.” Qaddah also points out that when Assad predicted chaos during his first speech he was actually speaking about a reality he has long sought to materialize. These threats were also made by the Assad regime’s grand mufti Ahmed Hassoun vowed to send terrorists to Europe if it insists on removing Assad. James Foley was also one of our sons, and our grief over his murder was not less than that of the United States. This horrendous crime is a terrorist attack not only on the Unites States, but also on Syria, the whole region and humanity in general. Only when we realize that the plight of humankind is one regardless of national, ideological or racial affiliation, we can say that we have followed the right way to fight terrorism. Fighting terrorism also requires empowering the Free Syrian Army which proved itself as the only one able to counter the extremist groups in the region. (Source: Syrian Coalition)