Brigadier Adel Ismail, who was appointed by Ahmad Toumeh as the new Chief -of-Staff of the Supreme Military Council to replace Adullah Bashir, explained that he did not know about the decision to appoint him until the decision was issued by the Presidency of the Government.
Ismail stressed in an interview with al-Arabi al-Jadid that he did not know either the reason behind the dismissal of Bashir nor the reason for his appointment.
He pointed out that he "will go on Friday morning to the interim government's headquarters in the city of Gaziantep in Turkey, and if things were going on seriously in terms of providing support to the rebels, and if the military councils are under actual control of the staff, he will accept the mission, but if the situation is as it was in the past, he will apologize and decline."
Ismail was born in the city of Houla, to the north of Homs and was promoted two years ago to the rank of brigadier, to be assigned now to theposition of the General Staff of the Free Syrian Army.
The Commander of the Coalition of Revolutionary Forces for the Liberation of Syria, Brigadier General Ahmad Rjal, described the move, saying "it looks like a reform, but it is too late". He pointed out that what he described as the "corruption at the conference of Antalya", was the reason behind the split in the ranks of the FSA and the emergence of the phenomenon of warlords and black flags, in reference to Islamic organizations.
Rjal added that "there is a new vision, but it is still not clear. I communicated with a group of leaders and military figures after the decision, and I realized that there have been no communications with any of them and that none of them has any vision for the next steps. So we hope it will be a quantum leap for the formation of a real military leadership to achieve the objectives of the Syrian people and their revolution".
The appointment came three days after the member of the Rally of Sons of Syria, Musa Ahmad Nabhan, told Italian AKI News Agency about a new political and military team formed by the United States to manage the crisis in the country during the next phase.
A number of front leaders and military councils recently declared their mass resignation of the General Staff of the Free Syrian Army, in response to what they described as "the international failure".
This move coincided with the U.S. President Barack Obama's request to Congress to approve the disbursement of $500 million for training of the "moderate" Syrian opposition.
A member in the Supreme Military Council of the Free Army, Rami ad-Dalati, said the decision of the head of the interim government, which requires solving the Supreme Military Council, is a political decision. Dalati asked in a phone interview with al-Arabiya TV channel the National Coalition to take the necessary measures to deter this action.
Translated and edited by The Syrian Observer
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