 I run the international security program. We're very pleased to welcome Osama Abu Zaid, a spokesman and representative of the Free Syrian Army. Zaid has been a member of the Track 1 Delegations and Negotiations in Geneva and Astana, representing the Syrian opposition bilaterally and with transnational bodies such as the EU and the UN. So he's going to speak for 15 to 30 minutes and sort of set up the discussion. And then we'll have a, we'll open it up to a discussion between all of us here. So Osama, thank you. OK, hello, everybody. Actually, first of all, I have to thank New America Institute and thank you for coming. I appreciate to be with all of you, between all of you. Actually, I will start from our trip to US because it's our first visit as Free Syrian Army delegation to US to meet the officials and the US administration, the officials from the administration. So as you know, the Syrian opposition now in very difficult position because of many reasons. The first one is the Russians' intervention. And as you know, the Russians, when they start the Russians' intervention in Syria, they said we are here to fight ISIS and Qaeda. But in the fact, and as what's going on the field, the Russians focusing on the Free Syrian Army, they start attacking the Free Syrian Army in northern Hama in Aleppo before the displacement from Aleppo and they are attacking Istamhuta and also the southern front. The second reason is the huge number of Iranian-backed militias. We are talking about Iranian militias, Afghanist militias, and Lebanese militias. And this huge number of militias, actually, they recapture many important and strategic areas around Damascus and also in east of Aleppo. The third reason is the US position. They stand far away from the opposition and focusing on east of Syria. And that's let the Russians, the Iranians, develop his influence on the field. As you see, as you know, the American administration focusing only on defeated ISIS. And just two days ago, Mr. Security Tillerson explained the American strategy about Syria. So before that, we have no clear strategy about Iranians and the Russians and the political process. And for sure, United Nations, Europe Union, has no real press or they didn't do real press on the Russian side and Iranian side after the nuclear deal or the agreement between Obama administration and Iran. And that's actually pushing the Syrian opposition to be in the very difficult position. The Frician army on the field fighting in many front lines, we are fighting against the Syrian regime and ISIS, Iranian on the field, Russians in the sky, and also Qaeda in our back. And as I know, there is huge question about is there a moderate armed opposition in Syria? Is there a Frician army or all of the armed groups is Qaeda and ISIS? I think one of the very good examples was just a few days ago when Nusra decided to withdraw from many villages close to Idlib and Rulay of Idlib and withdraw from more than 200 villages in Rulay of Idlib for the Russians and Iranians. And Frician army in Idlib actually establishing a operation room and re-liberated around 25 villages from these villages which Nusra withdraw from. Also, the Frician army is still in the southern front and we did very important achievements against Iranian. For example, Qunaytira battle against Iranians one year ago. The Iranian militia is there, led by Qasim Sulaimani by himself. And actually we success in this battle. We stop Qasim Sulaimani and his forces in this very strategic area between Dara'a, Qunaytira, and Rulay of Damascus. Also, we success against the Russians and Ma'bar Nasib battle in south of Syria because Ma'bar Nasib, it's the last border between Syria and Jordan which the Russian focusing to recapture this border. Because as you know, after Iranian militias recapture the Syrian desert which is close to Iraq border, the Iranians start have land bridge between from Tahran to Beirut, from Tahran to Jolan, from Tahran to Dara'a. And they just need 20 kilometers to have the border with Jordan. And they fighting us after the escalation zone agreement, Russian airstrikes, Iranian militias on the field, and as a Frician army we success to stop it. All these difficulties push the Frician army to accepting negotiation with the Russians. And to be honest, as the Syrians we believe, the main power who let Hafez al-Assad and Ba'ath Party control all of Syria from 1963 is the Soviet Union and the Russians. The main experience which provide to Syrian regime to has this intelligence system in Syria against the Syrian people, the Soviet Union, and the Russians who provide him this experience. And the main power who covering Bashar al-Assad after the civilian and peaceful demonstration in Syria 2011 was the Russians. And I wanted to remind you about Mr. Lavrov statement in 2011 when he said in his meetings with the Arabs, foreign ministers, he said, exactly, we will never allow for Arab Sunni to be in the power in Syria. It was so clear message and unfortunately we heard this message not from Iran, but from Mr. Lavrov. But because of all these difficulties we have no options and Geneva process was stuck and we lose Daria city close to Damascus, we lose many villages around Damascus which is very important for the Syrian opposition. So, and Aleppo which is the most important city for the Syrian opposition in the north start to be under siege. And as you remember, and I wanted to remind you when the Russians start airstrike campaign against hospitals, schools, they burn everything in Aleppo. I was a ruler of Aleppo and I was watching the Sohoi fighter jet, the Russians fighter jet when they destroy everything in Aleppo. We receive an offer from Ankara to negotiate with the Russians and we start negotiate with them about Aleppo and the only thing they provide to us to save displacement from Aleppo. And the most important shift in the Syrian revolution process was the loss of Aleppo, sorry. We start, the loss of Aleppo was the introduction to Astana talks and we said let's try negotiate with the Russians, maybe they will change his mind, they are trying to present himself as guarantors as in the middle area between the Syrian opposition and the Syrian regime. I'm one of the persons who went to Astana talks. I was spokesperson of Astana, of the Syrian opposition delegation to Astana talks and I will explain to you why I resigned from Astana talks because in first round the Russians never did what they promised us to stop Hezbollah, Lebanese Hezbollah attacking Guadibara, which is very important area, which is under SAGE because of Hezbollah and the Syrian regime and they covering Hezbollah to recapture Guadibara. And second round we, before the second round we asked the Russians to start release a detainees from the gels and they said give us a name, just a name. We said okay, there is one female, her name is Rani al-Abbas, which is arrested 2012 with all her family, kids and her husband. And actually the Russians, they never know why we called this name, why we decide to ask him about this name. And when we start the second round of Astana, they said we are sorry, there is no one named Rani al-Abbas. Rani al-Abbas went to Moscow few years ago to participate as some champion in the Russians, in Russia, sorry. And personally I told that Mr. Lavrentiev, the head of the Russian delegation, like you said there is no one named Rani al-Abbas. But let me tell you, Rani al-Abbas went to Moscow few years ago and if you look to the documents in Moscow airport, you will find her name. So we are between two options. You still believe the Syrian regime after he killed 500,000 Syrian people or you support Bashar al-Assad uncovering his lies. And third round, the Russians was the sponsor of negotiation to displacement al-Wa'ar, which is in Homs. And fourth round, they never allowed to the humanitarian aid passing to Istanbul, which is besieged close to Damascus. Even we have the Security Council resolution 2165, which is very clear about the passing humanitarian aid to the besieged areas. And they make huge press on our side to accepting Iran as guarantors and the de-escalation zone agreements, which is we will never accept Iran as guarantors because this agreement let Iranian militias on the field take off his militias uniform and take on United Nations uniform as observers after 500,000 Syrian people killed by these militias and the Syrian regime. Unfortunately, and the fourth round in Astana, it was the first round when the US decided to send a special envoy to the Astana talks. He was Mr, now, actually I forget his name as his assistant to Mr. Tillerson. Stewart Jones, I guess. I guess Stewart Jones. We meet with Mr. Stewart for two hours, and we said, we need your support to stop this agreement. Your administration said, we are against Iranian influence in Syria. And this agreement will give Iranian militias opportunity to be, to keep himself on the ground and to provide him a political cover. And unfortunately, they have no decision. They have no clear strategy. And he said, okay, we are here as observers and we are not here to, but we will do our best to make press on the Russian side. So there is nothing new. And that's why I resign from the Astana talks, because as a Syrian detainee, former detainee, as a person who saw the Iranian militias, how they burned our cities, as a person who is my city occupied by Iraqi Hezbollah. Hezbollah who killed the Syrian people and killed American Marines. And unfortunately, sometimes we have to remind the US administration, this party, these militias killed your Marines as they killed our people. So I will never accept Iran as guarantors. And to be honest, in this phase, our priority in Syria is Iran. Iran and Al-Qaeda, extremism groups. Because we believe these militias and Al-Qaeda who keep Bashar al-Assad in the power, the main reason to keep Bashar al-Assad in the power. And unfortunately, Russia, who's still talking about fighting terrorism, they keep covering Iranian militias on the field by security counsel, by the veto right, by covering Ham and the political talks. So we believe, actually, the Russians will never allow the Syrian people to have democracy in Syria. The Russians trying to implement it, a Shishan sample in Syria, a president who the Russians can provide Ham by the orders to Moscow to give him the orders and directions and send him again to his capital. That's what the Russians want. And we know as Syrians, as a Frician army, we have very small options. But if we keep fighting, maybe we lose, we have very horrible situation, humanitarian situation, I mean. But if we decide to give up, this loss will be more bigger for us and for all states, for all people who think to build his democracy system. Recently, as you know, the Russians start talking about sushi. And they are trying to get benefit from Astana, from his close relation to Turkey recently, to get the Syrian opposition to sushi. And as I remember, the admiral Igor, who was the main negotiator in Ankara and the Russian delegation, in our first meeting with them, he mentioned sushi plan without mention sushi. He said, let's have a ceasefire and then we will make a conference for all Syrian ethnic, all Syrian groups, Syrian opposition, and the people from the Syrian regime. And then we let him elected constitution committee. And after constitution, we run the elections. We make the elections. That's the sushi plan. Unfortunately, we started from our allies, from the Europe and others. Okay, we are against sushi, but they aren't against the plan of sushi. So, for example, Mr. Dimostri recently start talking about focusing on constitution and elections in Geneva process. And it is very dangerous because we believe they want us to start talking about constitution to have local crisis between Arabs and courts because courts want federally system and some part of Arabs didn't. We will have a crisis between Sunni and Alawi because of who, what's the region of the president of Syria. So, after talking, if we start talking about constitution before political transition, for sure Bashar al-Assad will present himself as one of the options to solve these local conflicts between Arab courts, Sunni, Alawi, Dorzi, and Christian. And actually elections before political transition, it's very bad joke. You can imagine, who can say, I'm against Bashar al-Assad with this intelligence system in Syria? How the United Nations can manage elections in Syria when United Nations cannot send milk bottle to Eastern Ghouta just 15 minutes from headquarter of United Nations in Damascus to Eastern Ghouta, just 15 minutes. Even milk bottle, they cannot send it to Eastern Ghouta and we called him to manage elections in Syria. So that's why as opposition we are focusing on political transition before anything. We are able to discuss all issues, the kind of political system in future of Syria, that's constitution, all issues. But before justice, we will never have a peace in Syria. No one able to run the elections against Bashar al-Assad with this kind of intelligence system in Damascus, just five days ago one member of the Cairo platforms who based in Damascus and who's a member in the negotiation delegation for opposition to Geneva was killed by car accident in Damascus, who will be able and brave to say, I'm against Bashar al-Assad. You can imagine how the Syrian people in Lebanon, for example, how they can go to elections and voting against Bashar al-Assad when Hezbollah has control on all of Lebanon. Yesterday six, four women, two children was killed because of cold close to the Lebanon border. They are trying to small gilling to Lebanon. I have photos of them. So before political transition and justice, we will never have a peace. No one from refugees are able to go back to Syria before he sure Bashar al-Assad not in the power, even me. If there is no justice, I will never go back to my city, Daria. So to have real political talks in Geneva, we have to focus on and we believe as a Christian army, we are supporting the peace talks in Geneva. We fully support, but we have to focus on political transition and justice and accountability for war crimes from the Syrian opposition and the Syrian regime. So that's the situation and the political process and on the field also. I know you have many questions and I prefer to let many points for the question and answer. That's better. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. So a few questions before we open it up. Is ISIS defeated in Syria? No. Two days ago ISIS recaptured a new territory in the rule of Idlib called St-Jar. So there is some kind of relation between justice and extremism, maybe between the feeling justice on the field. You know, the Syrian people start to lose his believing, the democracy, because we are entering to the eighth year in the Syrian revolution and until now we have people died hunger close to the most oldest capital in the world, Damascus. So if we wanted to... There is a difference between fighting tourism and fighting ISIS and defeated ISIS. If we wanted to defeat ISIS, we need to fight the reasons of the extremism groups and now in Syria the main reason is Iran and the ignore justice and focusing on some... focusing on East and forget the Arabs. All these issues will be reasons of rebuilding ISIS himself. Why did Nusrah, which is the Al-Qaeda affiliate, retreat from these villages and how would you characterize their strength or weakness right now? There is a crisis inside Nusrah recently between the head of Al-Qaeda group named Abu-Hammam and Abu-Muhammad Al-Julani. Fifteen days ago Abu-Muhammad Al-Julani arrested Abu-Hammam and this makes a huge crisis inside Nusrah. So there is two reasons to make Nusrah with the draw from these villages. The first reason Abu-Muhammad Al-Julani wondering about Abu-Hammam if he rebuilt himself with his troops and trying to kick Abu-Muhammad Al-Julani out. And as you heard Hamza Billadin, there is a talking about Hamza Billadin will go to Syria to relaunch Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda in northern Syria. So Abu-Muhammad Al-Julani wondering about this so he will lose his position and they will attacking him from his back so he decide to withdraw from all these villages and stay stronger in his headquarters to protect himself from this crisis with Abu-Hammam and Al-Qaeda. After April 21st the regime has not used chemical weapons or against the Syrian people? No, he used, last week he used against Douma in Istanbul. What sort of weapons? It's some kind of gas to be detected. I have no idea about the kind of gas but he used it just last week against the Syrian people in Istanbul. So the Trump administration had a missile strike on April 23rd after the regime used sarin. So you're saying that that didn't work? Because it's not enough. Actually it was a very strong message and the Syrian people was very happy actually. You know even when Israel attacking the regime air base or regime rockets launch, we feel happy. You know why? Because these rockets kill the Syrian people. So actually in the normal situation no one able to accept any other states' air strikes against his country. But when the state army, your state army attacking you kill your people and make your children date hunger you will be happy when another attacking his base, unfortunately. You said this is the first visit of the Free Syrian Army to Washington? Officially, under the Trump administration? Yeah, yeah. So who are you seeing? Sorry? Who are you seeing? Actually we meet congress senates and we meet people from state department and also from Bentagon, yeah. Anybody at the White House? I have no comments on this. Okay. Let's open it up to questions. You have a question, wait for the mic and identify yourself. We'll start with this guy. Thank you. My name is Dilma Nabil-Kadr, research fellow at the endowment for Middle East truth. Can you discuss a little about what's happening Afrin and the Turkish threat to Kurds? And before that can you discuss also your relationship with the Kurdish, with the Kurds in the north if there is any? Thank you. I prefer to answer. Actually I was one of the members negotiation delegation to negotiate with Bayedi 2015. And this negotiation become after many articles against Obama administration in New York Times and other media outlets because they said look, Obama administration supporting two groups in the Syrian opposition and these groups fighting each other why we send him support, why we pay him money. So the American side invite us to negotiate with Bayedi and actually we have no problem, we have very clear, we have no problem to build cooperation with SDF. Explain what SDF is. Sorry? Explain what SDF is. SDF is Bayedi and some Arab groups, some of them was part of the Frician army but there is Arab's brigade was with the Syrian regime and national defense like Jarba, a group, his cousin of Ahmad Jarba, the former president of the Syrian coalition. So we have no problem to build cooperation with them. This SDF is established by US, by Bentagon, with Bentagon program. We have no problem to cooperate with them because there is three points. The first point, they have to decide where they are standing in the opposition side or the regime side. If they are with the Syrian people in his fight for democracy or they are in the gray area. So we cannot build allies with others when they are in gray area, they have to decide. As a Frician army, we are starting from the local societies who have demonstration against Bashar al-Assad and then because of Bashar al-Assad crimes, we have no option and we decide to have this weapons. But our main goal was democracy in Syria and Bashar al-Assad. So how I build cooperation with you when you decide I am not against Bashar al-Assad or you are with Bashar al-Assad. So that's the first point. Second point, practically, we have 900 kilometers with Turkey, borders, we have 900 kilometers border area with Turkey. We have three Syrian million refugees in Turkey. We have the Syrian businessmen build the projects in Turkey. We cannot be allies with you when you say I am following Abdullah Ojalan. Now in Raqqa, SDF implemented Ojalan law, which has never heard about it. We explain also who Oshlan is and why that's significant. Yeah. Just to explain this one. The third, so we called him, you have to be local. You have to focus inside Syria. We cannot be allies with you when you are looking to be a partner with Turkish BKK. We cannot. It's practical point. Even US, after his crisis with Turkey, they keep saying we are understanding the Turkey concerns. That's US. As a Syrian opposition, we have to understand these concerns. That's the point. The third issue is there is 14 villages occupied by Bayedi, south of Afrin, which is Arab. And these villages, Bayedi occupied with Russian fighter jet support, not US support. We called him to withdraw from these villages just to present a practical reason for our fighters. Bayedi start understanding our position. They withdraw from our villages. We can't go back because there is 200,000 refugees from these 14 villages, which is like Tarrafat, Meneg, Derizman, all these villages. And actually they refused these points. We negotiate with them again, 2016, 2017, sorry, and Kobani. Because I know there is many journalists, there is many centers say Syrian opposition followed Erdogan and Muslim neighborhood. We went to Kobani. As a free Syrian army, we went to Kobani and negotiate with them. And Mr. Mark, the head of the American army between Iraq and Syria, was there in this round of negotiations. We negotiated with them for four months. And we offered him a plan. We said, if you withdraw from these villages, we can present ourselves as a partner in Raqqa Liberation operation before liberated from ISIS. And Bentagon actually, and Mr. Mark was like this idea. What did they do after? What they did? They let the Russians go inside their free, and these 14 villages, and they refused the Bentagon order. We start half the SDF in west of Forat River, supported by Russians. And east of Forat River supported by U.S. And actually, unfortunately, they played very dangerous game. It's not easy to manage relations with the American and Russians at the same time. And for sure, they are using you as a tool. I'm talking about Russians. And that's what they did now. They start with a draw from Afrin. We are not happy with Afrin operation to be honest. But we are not the main reason to have this situation in Afrin. We did our best. We present ourselves as a future partner with SDF if they start understanding the Syrian issue. Unfortunately, they didn't. Until now, we represent for the Syrian, for the American administration. We are able to develop our relation with SDF. But we still have these problems. It's not because of Erdogan. It's not because of Turkey. A few days ago, there was a demonstration in Membej, Arabs in Membej against Baye Day. They never did his demonstration because of Erdogan or Turkey. There are problems. And the Americans must be careful. Because maybe we start to have clashes between Arabs and Kurds because of Baye Day policy. This unlimited support. So we hope to find some way to solve this problem without war. But my opinion is we have no opportunity now. The Turks decide to start the operation. I don't know how we can stop it. Other questions? You mentioned Oshalan and Raqqa. Just explain. Because it's complicated. The SDF were largely Kurdish force. Oshalan is their leader. So the people in Raqqa, which was controlled by ISIS, have been liberated by this Kurdish. They're Arabs. This is the problem, right? We'll explain it a little bit more. The people of 90% from the Syrian, from the population in Raqqa are Arabs. They were happy to see ISIS go. Yes, but they are very happy. They're not happy about the Syrian defense process. No one will be happy with ISIS, actually. Because they wanted to control everything, even your personal life. And also Qaeda, like ISIS, with this kind of policies. We start to have problems two years ago in Idlib, actually. Because there are some villages and rulers of Idlib named Sulqin. The girls in Sulqin, they never get Hijab before the revolution. They have full freedom. That's the Sulqin society. So some leader of Nusrah decided to control Sulqin. And he decided to, okay, you have to take on the Hijab. We start to have this demonstration because they start controlling the personal rights. It's off record, but the same shit is ISIS. ISIS and Raqqa make the Syrian people there very angry. And there is another reason, is liberated any area from ISIS. That's mean very expensive cost. I'm talking about the humanitarian side. Destroy the buildings, destroy everything. Because you see what's happening in Mosul and Raqqa. Because it's very expensive. So no one liked ISIS to recapture his village because of this reason. So before liberation Raqqa, when the International Coalition decided to start the liberation of Raqqa, it was very good news. And I think you heard about the journalists, Syrian journalists, who make Raqqa Tuzbah Besamd, which is guys from Raqqa establishing groups against ISIS and documenting everything about ISIS and publishing. Actually CNN, Fox News, and many important media outlets get him as a source. Raqqa is being silenced slowly. Yes. So no one was happy about ISIS and everybody waiting for liberated from ISIS. So the International Coalition decided to make the SDF to be the main power against ISIS on the field. Which is mean problems with Turkey, which is mean maybe problems in future with the Arabs and Raqqa. But to be honest, as a people, in this phase, no one cared. They wanted to get his freedom from ISIS with anyone. The problems start after liberated Raqqa. Because there is Arab's local council for Raqqa, and before the liberation of Raqqa operation start, they offered to International Coalition to work with them. And they said, look, we will liberated Raqqa, and then we will give you a right to control Raqqa and to be a part of administration, all these issues. And the problems start after liberated Raqqa, because there is some kind of swap. After liberated Raqqa, they take off all Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi photos, but they start rising Abdullah Ocalan photos. We still have same boy. Ocalan is in jail in Turkey right now. Ocalan, he is head of Turkish BKK, and also he is in the jail in Turkey. And as you know, BKK is tourist group listed in US and Turkey in many countries. So that's this rising the photo. We are not talking about these details as a photo. We are talking about following Ocalan policy, which was very clear message to Turkey. And when you make a state which you have 900 kilometers border with them, anger, that's mean you will start have many problems and all of borders and about many issues. So before, there is many relations happened by Bayaday there about displacement Arabs from villages, some villages, and enforced under 18 to participate the armed groups, Bayaday groups, and following Ocalan law. So that make Arabs very angry and we start have a problems in Membej, which is close to Raqqa. We advise the American administration to start thinking about solve these problems by let the Arabs participate more in the administration, make real monitoring mechanism on this local administration councils, real monitoring systems to be sure. Because for sure when you as American officials, if I went to Raqqa, if I go to Raqqa, they will let me see all good things. We have full democracy, we have a market, but we need more than official visits or secret visits. We need real monitoring mechanism to be sure we could solve the problems between Arabs and Kurds in this area because we start heard from the Americans administration maybe there is reconstructions project in this part of Syria, but before reconstructions you need stabilization and stabilization need justice. So that's it. Thank you. Any other questions? This gentleman here. University, what is your assessment of the plan, the American plan for Syria laid out by Secretary Tillerson on Wednesday? Thank you so much. I supported. I feel it's, I believe it's positive because as a Syrian opposition we were wondering the Americans start supporting the Russians a political plan or a political process plan for Syria. So I believe what Mr. Secretary Tillerson said it's positive, but we need a clarification for many details. So for example, about Iran, how we will stop Iranian influence on the field. That's need clarification. What kind of decisions we will have to stop the Iranian influence on the field and that's what we explain or what we present for the State Department. We said as a Free Syrian Army, as a moderate groups, we must fight these Iranian militias. But we have some options and as we believe you have a same goal and we need U.S. support. Our message was very clear. Our priority is Iran and to defeat Iran you need U.S. support. So for example, this point need clarification. Also 2254. The Russians has his view and opinion and ideas about 2254 security council resolution. And as opposition we have our ideas about 2254 resolution. So this need also clarification. What does 2254 say? 2254 is security council resolution talking about political transition but he never mentioned that's clear like 2118 or Geneva, first Geneva statement. So 2254 talking about political transition, supporting the negotiation in Geneva and defeated terrorism groups on the ground. And also talking about, I think it's 12 points, there is ceasefire and real ceasefire implemented on the ground. It's so important to supporting the political process in Geneva, humanitarian aid and stop air force attacking the popular markets in Syria. So 2254 is good resolution without Russians opinion about this resolution. So these points need clarification but in general we support it and we believe it's a good start and it's so important to get the next step about what we are doing against Iranian influence on the ground. Hi my name is Jack Kropansky, unaffiliated. How much optimism do you have for the UN Geneva talks for the rest of the year? Is there anything concrete that you can point to or is the Syrian government just kind of playing along while they advance on the ground? Actually, zero. I never optimistic about Geneva if the US keep himself away from Geneva process. Last round I went to Geneva it was four months ago, there is no American envoy, even American envoy to Geneva process because they believe there is nothing in Geneva, there is no negotiation in Geneva. That's because of the Russians. And the Russians now what they are trying to do is we have Astana talks to deal about grounds issues about where's the opposition and where's the regime, where's the Turks, where's Iranians and where's the Russians. And we will establish in Tsutschi to start talking about constitution and elections and Geneva will be only just international platform for Syrian peace talks. And the delegation there they will do what we ordered, what we deal about in Astana and in Tsutschi. So the Russians try to get all main issues from Geneva to his process, Tsutschi and Astana. Great. Any other questions? Thank you Osama for being very, very helpful. If depressing. Thank you. Thank you.