Syria/al Qaeda wrapup
In a comment on this post, Syrian Minister of Communications and Technology Amr Salem tells us:
Alqaida and the Iran issue was never discussed with me by Sky-News or any other source. This was completely fabricated
(previous coverage: declaiming the story, bio, story here.)
Al Hayat interviews Bashar al-Assad, and leads in with:
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to Al-Hayat: al-Qaida's Presence in Lebanon is Growing … Sometimes We Pursue Terrorists and They Flee There.
Yet nowhere in the article, which is written as a Q&A, is al-Qaida mentioned. Is this another disclaimable quote?
Foreign minister Walid Moallem draws a line between Hizb'allah and al Qaeda:
Asked what he meant by extremists, Moallem said "groups like al-Qaida and men like Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, those who kill innocent people in Iraq, Europe and the United States.""These people are no freedom fighters," he said. "These people are terrorists. You cannot compare them with Hezbollah or Hamas."
I'll be honest, at first I was dismissive of this quote, but this is at least a starting point for conversation. Not to defend either Hamas or Hizb'allah, but their tactics and strategies are very different than those of al Qaeda - at least today.
