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Seeking Allies Among Syrian Rebels, U.S. Instead Finds Hostility Obama Says U.S. Will Recognize Rebels in Syria
(about 2 hours later)
BEIRUT, Lebanon — As the United States tries attempts to rally international support for the Syrian rebellion, trying to herd the opposition into a shadow government that it can recognize and assist, on the ground in Syria it faces an entirely different problem: Much of the rebellion is hostile toward America. WASHINGTON — President Obama said Tuesday that the United States would formally recognize a coalition of Syrian opposition groups as that country’s legitimate representative, in an attempt to intensify the pressure on President Bashar al-Assad to give up his nearly two-year-long bloody struggle to stay in power.
Frustration mounted for months as the United States sat on the sidelines, and peaked this week when it blacklisted the Nusra Front, one of the uprising’s most effective fighting forces, calling it a terrorist organization. The move was aimed at isolating the group, which according to Iraqi and American officials has operational ties to Al Qaeda’s franchise in Iraq. Mr. Obama’s announcement, in an interview with Barbara Walters of ABC News on the eve of a meeting in Morocco of the Syrian opposition leaders and their supporters, was widely expected.
But interviews with a wide range of Syrian rebels and activists show that for now, the blacklisting has appeared to produce the opposite. It has united a broad spectrum of the opposition — from Islamist fighters to liberal and nonviolent activists who fervently oppose them — in anger and exasperation with the United States. The dissatisfaction is over more than just the blacklisting, and raises the possibility that now, just as the United States is stepping up efforts to steer the outcome in Syria, it may already be too late. But it marks a new phase of American engagement in a bitter, conflict that has claimed at least 40,000 lives, threatened to destabilize the broader Middle East and defied all outside attempts to end it. The United States had for much of the civil war largely sat on the sidelines, only recently moving more energetically as it appeared the opposition fighters were beginning to gain momentum — and were becoming dominated by radical Islamists.
More than 100 antigovernment organizations and fighting battalions have called online for demonstrations on Friday under the slogan, “No to American intervention — we are all Jabhet al-Nusra,” a reference to the group’s Arabic name. Experts and many Syrians, including rebel, say the move may well be too little, too late. They note that it is not at all clear if this group will be able to coalesce into a viable leadership, if it has any influence over the fighters waging war with the government or if it can roll back widespread anger at the United States.
Syrians across the political spectrum say the United States allowed more than 40,000 people to die in the 21-month conflict. Supporters of the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, call the uprising a creation of the West and its allies. His opponents excoriate the United States for failing to provide arms and leaving them to perish — and have begun to express a growing wariness of American involvement in Syria’s political future. “The recognition is designed as a political shot in the arm for the opposition,” said Andrew J. Tabler, a senior fellow and Syrian expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “But it’s happening in the context of resentment among the Syrian opposition, especially armed elements, of the White House’s lack of assistance during the Syrian people’s hour of need. This is especially true among armed groups.”
The announcement puts Washington’s political imprimatur on a once-disparate band of opposition groups, which have begun to coalesce under pressure from the United States and its allies, to develop what American officials say is a credible transitional plan to govern Syria if Mr. Assad is forced out.
Moreover, it draws an even sharper line between those elements of the opposition that the United States champions and those it rejects. The Obama administration coupled its recognition with the designation hours earlier of a militant Syrian rebel group, the Nusra Front, as a foreign terrorist organization, affiliated with Al Qaeda.
“Not everybody who is participating on the ground in fighting Assad are people that we are comfortable with,” Mr. Obama said in an interview on the ABC program, “20/20.” “There are some who I think have adopted an extremist agenda, an anti-U.S. agenda.”
But Mr. Obama praised the opposition, known formally as the National Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, for what he said was its inclusiveness, its openness to various ethnic and religious groups, and its ties to local councils involved in the fighting against Mr. Assad’s security forces.
“At this point we have a well-organized-enough coalition — opposition coalition that is representative — that we can recognize them as the legitimate representative of Syrian people,” he said.
The United States is not the first to make this step. Britain, France, Turkey and the Gulf Cooperation Council have also recognized the Syrian opposition group. But experts note that the support has done nothing to change the military equation inside Syria, where Mr. Assad has stubbornly clung to power despite gains by rebel fighters. Mr. Assad continues to rely on air power and artillery to pummel rebel positions even as fighting has spread into his stronghold of Damascus.
Mr. Obama notably did not commit himself to providing arms to the rebel or to supporting them militarily with airstrikes or the establishment of a no-fly zone, a stance that has led to a rise of anti-American sentiment among many of the rebels.
That is the kind of half-step that has led to mounting frustration in Syria, peaking this week with the blacklisting of the Nusra Front. Far from isolating the group, interviews with Syrian rebels and activists show, it has for now appeared to do the opposite. It has united a broad spectrum of the opposition — from Islamist fighters to liberal and nonviolent activists who fervently oppose them — in anger and exasperation with the United States.
The United States has played an active role behind-the-scenes in shaping the opposition, insisting that it be broadened and made more inclusive. But until Mr. Obama’s announcement, the United States had held off on formally recognizing the opposition, asserting that it wanted to use the lure of recognition to encourage the rebel leaders to flesh out their political structure and fill important posts.
In recent weeks, the coalition has been developing a series of committees on humanitarian assistance, education, health, judicial matters and security issues. It has not, however, been able so far to agree on a prime minister or a cabinet even after extensive negotiations.
And the coalition is still unlikely to be viewed as a legitimate representative by the many Syrians still supporting the government or by many fighters who have little connection to the exile opposition.
While last week coalition members suggested that choosing a prime minister was important for persuading the United States to offer recognition, American officials said the White House had decided that the opposition had made sufficient progress for now. The American hope is that the opposition, in conjunction with local councils that are being formed in Syria, can help govern areas that have been wrested from Mr. Assad’s control, provide public services like law enforcement and utilities and perhaps even channel humanitarian assistance. Alluding to this role, Mr. Obama said that the opposition will “have some responsibilities to carry out.”
But Mr. Obama’s move does not go so far as to confer on the opposition the legal authority of a state. It does not, for example, recognize the opposition’s right to have access Syrian government funds, take over the Syrian Embassy in Washington or enter into binding diplomatic commitments.
It is also unclear to what extent the move might influence the situation inside Syria where the pace of the fighting has intensified. A senior American official who is attending the meeting in Morocco said on Tuesday that none of the rebel military commanders from the Free Syrian Army would be attending the meeting on Wednesday.
“There are people here who definitely coordinate with armed groups, with the Free Syrian Army,” he said. “That is not to say they are giving instructions to it; they do not,” he said. “It is not to say that they are telling it what to do or what to say in the international field; they are not. In a sense, the Free Syrian Army is a separate organization.”
The widespread dissatisfaction among rebel groups — and the broader population — raises the possibility that now, just as the United States is stepping up efforts to steer the outcome in Syria, it may already be too late.
More than 100 antigovernment organizations and fighting battalions have called online for demonstrations on Friday under the slogan, “No to American intervention — we are all Jabhet al-Nusra,” a reference to the Nusra Front’s Arabic name.
“Anti-American sentiment is growing, because the Americans are messing up in bigger ways lately,” said Nabil al-Amir, an official spokesman for the rebel military council for Damascus and its suburbs, one of the committees that the United States and its allies are trying to coax into a unified rebel command. With every step to correct earlier mistakes, he said, “they make a bigger mess.”“Anti-American sentiment is growing, because the Americans are messing up in bigger ways lately,” said Nabil al-Amir, an official spokesman for the rebel military council for Damascus and its suburbs, one of the committees that the United States and its allies are trying to coax into a unified rebel command. With every step to correct earlier mistakes, he said, “they make a bigger mess.”
Liberals activists blame American inaction for giving jihadists a leading role in the conflict. Rival rebel groups have declared solidarity with the Nusra Front, and Islamists have congratulated it on its new distinction. And seemingly everyone accuses the United States of hypocrisy for not putting a terrorist label on Mr. Assad, whose forces have killed far more civilians than any rebel group. Liberals activists blame American inaction for giving jihadists a leading role in the conflict. Rival rebel groups have declared solidarity with the Nusra Front, and Islamists have congratulated it on its new distinction. And seemingly everyone accuses the United States of hypocrisy for not slapping the terrorist label on Mr. Assad, whose forces have killed far more civilians than any rebel group.
The United States scrambled on Tuesday to contain the damage, issuing a more complete justification for blacklisting the Nusra Front and stressing that the group has killed Syrian civilians in more than 40 suicide bombings. And it announced a new wrinkle: It is also blacklisting pro-government militias accused of killing civilians as part of “the Assad regime’s campaign of terror and violence.” The United States on Tuesday issued a more complete justification for blacklisting the Nusra Front and stressing that the group has killed Syrian civilians in more than 40 suicide bombings.
The militias, a Treasury Department statement said, would include what it called “the Shabiha” and Jaish al-Sha’bi, or the People’s Army, which it said was created with the help of Mr. Assad’s allies Iran and the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah and was modeled on Iran’s Basij militia. And it announced a new wrinkle: It is also blacklisting pro-government militias accused of killing civilians as part of “the Assad regime’s campaign of terror and violence.”
The militias, a Treasury Department statement said, would include what it called “the Shabiha” and Jaish al-Sha’bi, or the People’s Army, which it said was created with the help of Mr. Assad’s allies Iran and the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah and modeled on Iran’s Basij militia.
But it may be hard to define who exactly is blacklisted under the heading of “shabiha,” which is not the name of an organization but a catchall term for pro-government gangs. The People’s Army is a nascent group, an apparent effort to turn those informal militias into a paramilitary organization.But it may be hard to define who exactly is blacklisted under the heading of “shabiha,” which is not the name of an organization but a catchall term for pro-government gangs. The People’s Army is a nascent group, an apparent effort to turn those informal militias into a paramilitary organization.
Criticizing America has become a favorite sideline of antigovernment activists. Some have even questioned the sincerity of President Obama’s recent warning that Mr. Assad would be crossing “a red line” if he used chemical weapons on Syrians.

Mark Landler and Michael R. Gordon reported from Washington, and Anne Barnard from Beirut, Lebanon. Hania Mourtada contributed reporting from Beirut.

At a recent demonstration, solemn-eyed boys posed for a photograph that spread online with the title “Red line or green light?” They held a poster of a traffic light, emblazoned with an American flag, shining green for Mr. Assad as he drives a truck laden with chemical weapons.
Demonstrators in Kafr Nabl, a northern Syrian town known lately for its witty antigovernment slogans, quickly mocked the blacklisting with a poster that showed a cartoonish Mr. Assad, with jutting ears, a diabolical grimace and a bloody dagger in each hand, standing over a pile of corpses. One of the dead held a black banner with an Islamic slogan as Mr. Obama, his back to the massacre, pointed at the banner and said, “Terrorist!”
One exile opposition leader, Burhan Ghalioun, even suggested that by rushing under American pressure, the newly formed opposition body, the Syrian National Coalition, had undermined its own credibility, promising and then failing so far to form a shadow government ahead of international talks in Marrakesh, Morocco, on Wednesday.
As opposition leaders gathered in Marrakesh on Tuesday, Farouk Tayfour, a senior official of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood, a powerful force in the coalition, called the United States’ blacklisting move “very wrong and too hasty.”
An activist who declined to give his name for safety reasons said, “All populations resent those who abandon them and then come at the critical moments to steal their victory.” .
An activist in Douma, outside Damascus, said flatly, “America supports the regime.”
The blacklisting of the Nusra Front cost America support in the northern province of Idlib, said Ahmed Kadour, an activist there who opposes Islamist fighting groups. He said the United States was trying ineptly to solve a problem it created.
“If they had intervened and helped us from the very beginning,” Mr. Kadour said, “we wouldn’t have reached this point.”
One of the sorest points for some Syrians is that a unified military command formed last week at American behest includes Islamist battalions that fight alongside the Nusra Front and share much of its ideology.
The distinction, some believe, is that Nusra Front has never offered to come under the umbrella of the Free Syrian Army, saying it does not need or want Western aid, while the other groups are backed by American allies like Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
A secular civilian activist in Idlib said that one such group, Ansar al-Sham, is responsible for many abuses that have soured some Syrians on the rebels, like the commandeering of bakeries and hospitals, but described the Nusra Front as “professional and meticulous.”
The activist said that Saudi Arabia was the go-between connecting Ansar and the United States. He said he suspected the decision to blacklist the Nusra Front but not Ansar was either “sheer idiocy” or part of “a political deal.”
“The Syrian population now hates America a lot,” said an activist who posts online material for the Damascus military council, part of the American-backed rebel structure, whose nom de guerre is Mosaab Abu Qatada. It was not always that way, the activist added. “When Obama said that Bashar should leave, some people here held American flags and sent him their greetings,” he said. “Unfortunately, it’s all lies and hypocrisy.”

Michael R. Gordon contributed reporting from Washington.