Almost once a week (or daily in the Saudi and Qatari media), there is an announcement of a new unification effort by Syrian exile and armed groups. Here is today from the New York Times: "Military commanders of the main Free Syrian Army units from all over Syria
agreed Friday to a unified command structure, bowing to intense
pressure from Qatar and Saudi Arabia, who the fighters said promised
more advanced weapons once a central military council was in place." But what the article by Neil MacFarquhar does NOT say is that there was an agreement that some two thirds of the 30-member Supreme Military Council (do you know how many supreme military councils have been announced by those groups and their sponsors in Qatar and Saudi Arabia?) would be representatives of the Muslims Brotherhood and their affiliates while the rest would go to Salafites. So we are talking about a really secular and liberal outfit there. Of course, many groups did not even attend or were not invited (like the very founder and commander of the Free Syrian Army, Riyad Al-As`ad). The two midwives for this agreement were Prince Bandar of Saudi intelligence and `Abdur-Rahman Al-Atiyyah of the Qatari foreign ministry.