President Of Syria's Main Opposition Group Would Cut Ties With Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas

Here's some potentially positive news out of a region that has been progressively turning further away from the West. With Tunisia, Libya Morocco and now Egypt voting for Islamists (historically anti-Israel and anti-West), the Syrian Nation Council, Syria's main opposition group, has said  that if elected it plans on cutting ties with Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah.

In a Wall Street Journal interview its president, Burhan Ghalioun,  said

“There will be no special relationship with Iran,” Ghalioun, a 66-year-old university professor, told the Journal in an interview at his home in Paris.


“Breaking the exceptional relationship means breaking the strategic, military alliance,” he said, adding that “after the fall of the Syrian regime, (Hezbollah) won’t be the same.”

Long time allies with Iran, Syria has been suspected of supporting Lebanon's Hezbollah and Palestine's Hamas.  At one point during the height of the Iraq War there was also speculation that Saddam Hussein had transported those infamous "weapons of mass destruction" (WMD) to Syria. No-one knows for sure if that ever happened, but cutting ties with Iran and the supply lines for those two terrorist organizations could have a major  impact on that whole region.  With more countries turning Islamist in the Middle East and North Africa, Israel needs as many pro-West friends as possible.  Not that Syria would embrace Israel with open arms, under a Ghalioun leadership.  They do still have their sight set on the Golan Heights, but  Ghalioun said that they would try to regain that land through negotiations rather than violence.  Israel captured the plateau during the 1967  '6 Day War.  The Israelis might be more willing to compromise knowing they won't be facing violence from the Syrian border.

In the interview, Ghalioun also asked the international community for help in toppling the Assad family's dictatorial 40-year rule, by calling for a  

".. more robust international support for the rebels, including the possible establishment of a no-fly zone.

“Our main objective is finding mechanisms to protect civilians and stop the killing machine,” Ghalioun said.


“We say it is imperative to use forceful measures to force the regime to respect human rights.”

But who are these Syrian rebel fighters?  I think Libya's rebel forces taught the world a major lesson- since a once semi-secular country will now embrace Shariah Law, courtesy of those same rebels who fought long and hard to gain their freedom from a controlling, power-hungry dictator.

Of course, the Syrians still have to deal with an unbudging president Bashar al-Assad, and undoubtedly more violence and many more deaths before there is any regime change over there.  But it's promising.