By Con Coughlin
I would strongly recommend that William Hague – and any other member of the Government who still believes it is a good idea to arm the Syrian rebels – takes a close look at today's article in the Wall Street Journal. It reports that Islamist militants linked to al-Qaeda have now launched a campaign dubbed "expunging filth" which is aimed destroying the Syrian Free Army (SFA), its main rival in the rebel movement.
Mr Hague and Laurent Fabius, his French counterpart, argue that it is essential to continue arming the rebels to increase the pressure on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to end the civil war, destroy his chemical weapons arsenal and enter peace talks.
But as I have argued consistently since the outbreak of the Syrian conflict more than two years ago, there's no point getting rid of the detestable Assad regime only to have it replaced by an even more unpalatable government, one that openly supports al-Qaeda's nihilistic ideology.
As my colleague Ben Farmer reported in the Telegraph earlier this week, it is now estimated that up to 50 per cent of Syria's rebel forces support an Islamist agenda, and it is generally accepted that it is the Islamists who are doing the lion's share of the fighting.
This is not good news for the more secular-minded SFA who, thanks to the military support Assad loyalists have received from Iran and Russia, already find themselves on the receiving end of the highly effective counter offensive being undertaken by regime loyalists. Now they find themselves have to fight on two fronts – against Assad and their fellow rebels.
And if jihadists loyal to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), the radical Islamist group based in Aleppo province, succeed in their bid to seize control of the rebel movement, then Britain and its allies – particularly France and America – would be well-advised to undertake a serious review of their programmes for arming the Syrian rebels.
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