Although most of them are under forty, the six years of confronting the brutality of the Assad regime made them grow older and older.
Most are soft-spoken and look quite simple, but down-deep they got the hearts of lions.
In their hearts, they got a firm unshakable belief that they are defending a just cause, and they would be victorious whatever it takes.
They know that they did not defect from the Assad “army” or joined the Syrian Revolution and held arms by choice, but rather they found it inevitable to defend their people.
Inside themselves, they have real bitterness that everyone has abandoned them and tried hard to use or misuse them. They believe that only God is by their side and the noble cause they are sacrificing their souls for.
They know that they are being misperceived as sectarian and extremists. Take it from me, they are not, but such a labeling is instigated by their enemies; it is intentional and it is going to be short-lived, because it is simply untrue.
Those men are aware of the fact that − with the help of the millions of dollars spent on distorting their image − they lost a lot; yet truth would surface sooner or later, because facts are stubborn things. The world is destined to realize how noble they are and how just their cause is. And they know that.
They believe in their cause and in their people; and their witness to that is the tolerance of the Syrian people for the past six years not only at the hands of the regime but others as well.
More than anything else, they believe that they are going to be victorious irrespective of time, because the Assad regime is so fragile, and it is surviving only because others are nursing it: Hezbollah, the Iranians and lately the Russians said it: "Had it not been for us, the regime would have collapsed in days." And such nursing cannot go for ever, but the people of Syria can.
Those men are fully aware of the political games being played in the Syrian issue at the expense of their blood and the destiny of their country.
They have developed tolerance amongst themselves and towards others you only find among monks: stubborn when it comes to the justness of their cause, unified towards their goal when it comes to removing the regime, and moderate and lenient in tackling any issue however complicated it might be. And that is why they are in Astana.
They understand that Russia has all along referred to them as "terrorists", and it suddenly changed its mind and invited them to Astana as a co-signer with the regime to achieve a settlement in Syria. They understand Russia more than it understands them.
They even know that Russia is using them for certain political ends and gains; yet they went along, but quite determined on their premise that the price is the Assad regime’s removal. And if things do not go this way, no Russian political gains can be attained. They took such a position despite the continuous presence of Russian jets in the Syrian skies.
Their instinctive political awareness tells them that if the Russian and Turkish guarantors are to succeed, they are destined to a confrontation with Iran and the regime it protects in Damascus.
Finally, they do not fully count on such a development; it is the nobility and justice of their cause they count on; and they will surely succeed.
التعليقات (0)