Syrian opposition leader: We are not joining the coalition against Islamic State, the coalition is joining us

JUDY WOODRUFF:

The chief of the principal political opposition group, the Syrian National Coalition, is Hadhi al-Bahra. He took over in early July and will address the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday.

This morning, al-Bahra sat down with chief foreign affairs correspondent Margaret Warner in New York.

MARGARET WARNER:

Mr. al-Bahra, thank you for joining us.

HADHI AL-BAHRA, Syrian National Coalition:

Thank you.

MARGARET WARNER:

President Obama, the U.S. Congress have now committed to train and equip the rebels you represent and assist in other ways, including airstrikes. What do you need most immediately and how soon?

HADHI AL-BAHRA:

I believe that we will need to have a clear strategy, clear planning on how to start this program as fast as possible.

We need to identify what type of equipment needed to fight this war. So, actually, this is one of the main purpose of our visit to the U.S. right now, to have a fresh start, correct start of this program. We need weapons systems which can compete with whatever are in the hands of ISIL forces, not to be supplied with inferior weapons systems. So we need to fight a war where really we are on equal basis at least with ISIL in weapons and training.

MARGARET WARNER:

How soon do you want to see U.S. airstrikes employed?

HADHI AL-BAHRA:

They should be employed as soon as possible, because, as you will see now, only in the past week, there are thousands of refugees who fled from Kurdish villages and towns inside Syria towards Turkey.

This morning, I had a call, more than 130,000 refugees already fled from these areas.

MARGARET WARNER:

Now, you are really engaged in a two-front war. You're fighting not only the Islamic State or ISIL. You're fighting the Assad government.

Once you get this new training and equipping and weapons, and you have the benefit of U.S. airstrikes, are you going to focus all of that against the extremist forces, or are you also going to use that new capability against the Assad government?

HADHI AL-BAHRA:

You know, after all, we don't have the freedom of choice of options. We will be fighting and defending yourself against whoever really having offensive against you.

So we will be for sure fighting the two fronts at the same time. But more resources would be given right now on ISIL front because, really, it is a real threat and is creating a humanitarian crisis at catastrophic level.

MARGARET WARNER:

But given the U.S. desire to stay out of the civil war between your forces and the Assad government, you're not making any commitment to not use some of this increased capability against government forces.

HADHI AL-BAHRA:

You need to go back to the root of the issue. The root of the issue, that you have a dictatorship in Syria, which built up a strategy of using the — of terrorist organizations and terrorism in order to stay and hang onto power.

So they are the main cause of this issue. If we put them on the side and deal only with the symptoms, you will have the cause already in place, which will produce more terrorist organizations in time.

MARGARET WARNER:

Are your forces positioned to move in and seize ISIL/ISIS held territory if U.S. airstrikes are employed to weaken them?

HADHI AL-BAHRA:

Sure.

As we speak now there is a whole front in Aleppo near my town, where ISIL forces stand in front of the Free Syrian Army units, so we are fighting them already on the ground.

MARGARET WARNER:

Now, there is concern in the United States that right now, though, the Free Syrian Army, your forces, are fighting along side the al-Nusra Front, which has as its target U.S. and Western interests. What do you say to that?

HADHI AL-BAHRA:

The Free Syrian Army are by themselves, standing alone, under one command-and-control, while al-Nusra forces, they are separate from this command-and-control.

MARGARET WARNER:

But are you denying that you all are cooperating, coordinating in some fashion with al-Nusra at this moment?

HADHI AL-BAHRA:

It is not coordination or cooperation, but it's a fact on the ground. If Nusra held one area, and we have advances within other areas which near this area, there is no coordination, but there's facts on the ground. Either they don't hit these forces or this force doesn't hit them. You make decision on the battle according to the urgency of the matter.

MARGARET WARNER:

How likely is it that U.S. airstrikes against the Islamic State extremists will also benefit Assad's forces?

HADHI AL-BAHRA:

Assad forces, they will try to fill the gap. If ISIL forces withdraw from an area, they will try to go and fight these areas.

But I don't think they will have a chance, because we have prepared our own forces to fill these gaps. This, we will make sure by our own forces, while you do the air attacks that our ground forces will be advancing on the ground and doing the groundwork. But this would be coupled also by social and economical program to govern the areas which ISIL will withdraw from.

MARGARET WARNER:

After pleading with the international community for two to three years for help, how confident are you, you now have it?

HADHI AL-BAHRA:

I think now the whole world and the international community has realized the threat, the real threat that extremist organizations similar to ISIL would be on the international community itself.

It's not a Syrian issue anymore. So the way we look at it, that we are not joining the coalition. The coalition is joining our war against extremists and terrorist organizations.

MARGARET WARNER:

How long will you need the active support of the United States and other members of the coalition to finish the job?

HADHI AL-BAHRA:

I expect, if we do it right, as I said, one year, you see immediate results. You see a really degrading capability of ISIL.

And within two years, you will see more stabilization. And I expect, if we do it correctly, within three years, we will forget about the existence of the organization of ISIL. As you know, al Qaeda, you fought against it since 15 years ago, but still they exist until now, because the approach was wrong. We need to have the right approach from now, from the start.

MARGARET WARNER:

Mr. al-Bahra, thank you so much.

HADHI AL-BAHRA:

Thank you.