Britains Policy on Syria has just sunk (The Independent)

The final bankruptcy of American and British policy in Syria came 10 days ago as Islamic Front,
a Saudi-backed jihadi group, overran the headquarters of the Supreme Military Council of the
so-called Free Army (FSA) at Bab al-Hawa on the Syrian side of the border with Turkey. The
FSA, along with the Syrian National Coalition, groups that the United States and Britain have
been pretending for years are at the heart of Syrian military and political opposition has been
discredited. The remaining FSA fighters are in flight, have changed sides, or are devoting all
their efforts to surviving the onslaught from jihadi or al-Qa’ida-linked brigades.
The West’s favorite commander, General Salim Idris, was on the run between Turkey and his
former chief supporter and paymaster, Qatar. Turkey closed the border, the other side of which
is now controlled by the Islamic Front.
Who are the winners in the new situation? One is Assad because the opposition has become a
fragmented movement dominated by al-Qa’ida umbrella organisation the Islamic State of Iraq
and the Levant (Isil); the other al-Qa’ida franchisee, the al-Nusra Front; and the Islamic Front,
consisting of six or seven large military formations, whose uniting factor is Saudi money and
an extreme ideology similar to Saudi Arabia’s version of Islam.
The allegation of Saudi control is becoming easier to substantiate. Until a year ago, the Saudis
stayed somewhat in the background when it came to funding the Syrian opposition, in which
the leading role was played by Qatar in association with Turkey. But the failure of the armed
groups to win and US anger that the Qataris and Turks had allowed much of the aid to go to
jihadis led to an important change this summer, when Saudi Arabia took over from Qatar as
chief supporter of the opposition.