The commander of the Free Syrian Army’s al-Qadisiyah Brigade in Daraa, Brigadier Pilot Moussa al-Zoubi, said that what would prevent Syrian warplanes from bombarding Daraa is either a political decision by states supporting the opposition to prohibit Syrian regime air forces from flying over residential areas, or the supply to the FSA of anti-aircraft weapons to neutralize Syrian air forces in the south. "We are not seeking sophisticated missile systems; we want weapons that prevent regime air forces from attacking us – easy to use and portable weapons", Zoubi said in an interview with All4syria.
Zoubi stressed that when opposition fighters manage to obtain these weapons, they will use them in the right way. "We have a lot of skilled fighters in the Free Syrian Army, we have specialist officers who can use all types of weapons – officers committed to a pure national ideology. After the success of the revolution, these weapons will be handed over to the national army, which will protect the country and find a way to keep these weapons which liberated the country from Assad and his gang", Zoubi added.
Regarding the Assad regime's future plans, Zoubi said: “The parties which control the regime's policy towards the conflict in Syria play the card of sectarianism while pretending to protect minorities. The regime took advantage of this aspect by winning over the minorities in Syria – like Christians, Druze and Shiites. The regime managed to drag them over to its side right from the beginning of the revolution. However, we as a party in the conflict in Syria were never sectarian. We consider Syria a mosaic of sects and races, and none of the parties or geographical areas in Syria can live in isolation from the others. We are a homogeneous social unit and this is what reassures us, and in turn, we reassure the other communities that Syria after Assad is for everyone, because we were all oppressed by the same regime. We will not allow the division of Syria into sectarian or ethnic cantons, either during the conflict or after the success of the revolution, as our loyalty is only to our homeland”.
According to the commander, the Southern Front rebel alliance is a positive step towards the unification of the Free Syrian Army factions. “If this step was hurdled by some mistakes, it is normal because the Free Army fighters are volunteers from different social backgrounds – there are the educated and the illiterate. Originally, most of them were non-professionals, and many of them didn’t serve in the army, so errors are natural in the ranks of these militant factions. Since the establishment of the Southern Front, many fighters received weapons training, and this training paid off through the victories achieved in the south”, Zoubi explained.
Translated and edited by The Syrian Observer
