REPORT: Syria rebels push al-Qaeda back; US open to Iran role

As Syria's civil war gets ever more complex amid a broad regional confrontation between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims, the United States raised the prospect of Assad's sponsor Iran, the Shi'ite power long at odds with Washington and its Sunni Arab allies, playing some role in this month's Syrian peace talks.   

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Tehran still should not take formal part in the peace conference scheduled to start on Lake Geneva on Jan. 22 because it had not endorsed a 2012 accord calling for a new Syrian leadership. But he said there might be ways that Iran could "contribute from the sidelines".   

There is little prospect of a rapid end to the Syrian conflict but the resurgence in Iraq of mutual enemy al Qaeda, and a recent rapprochement with the new Iranian president, have raised speculation about a common effort between the United States and Tehran to contain instability in the region.   

Kerry, visiting Jerusalem, pledged to help Iraq's Shi'ite-led government fight al Qaeda but said Washington was not considering sending U.S. troops, two years after they withdrew. 

On the field:

Syrian opposition activists said the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), allied to al Qaeda and featuring foreign jihadists among its commanders, had pulled back on Sunday from strongpoints including al-Dana and Atma in Idlib province and that fighters from the Nusra Front and Ahrar al-Sham moved in.   

"The Islamic State is pulling out without a fight. Its fighters are taking their weapons and heavy guns," activist Firas Ahmad said. He added that the ISIL fighters headed in the direction of Aleppo, where Assad's troops have stepped up pressure on rebel forces who captured the city 18 months ago.   

Another activist, Abdallah al-Sheikh, said that some Syrian ISIL fighters had stayed in place but switched allegiance to the Nusra Front, whose commanders are mostly Syrian rather than foreign. Nusra coordinates with the Islamic Front, a coalition of Syrian Islamist brigades that includes Ahrar al-Sham.   

Syrian opposition supporters and diplomats said that, despite days of skirmishing in the northwest between ISIL and other rebel factions, a broad alliance involving these groups seemed to be holding in the desert east of the country.   

"There is certainly competition between ISIL and the other Islamist militants, but it does not appear there is full-scale confrontation," a Middle Eastern diplomat said.   

The strength of radical Islamists, nearly three years after popular revolt broke out against Assad, has caused Western powers to hold back on practical support for the rebels despite endorsing the goal, shared with Sunni Arab states such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar, of overthrowing the Syrian president. 

In the eastern Syrian province of Raqqa, Sunni Islamist activist Khaled Abu Alwalid said that the presence of Iraqi Shi'ite militia fighters in Syria was galvanising a common front against them by ISIL and other Islamist factions.   

"This is a religious war encompassing Iraq, Syria and Lebanon," Alwalid said.   

Like Iraq, Lebanon has seen violence linked to the Syrian war, and its Hezbollah militia, backed by Iran, has sent fighters into Syria to help Assad. There were clashes on Sunday in the Lebanese city of Tripoli between Sunnis and members of the Shi'ite-linked Alawite sect to which Assad belongs.

REUTERS

To watch Dalal Abou Haydar's report, please click on the VIDEO above