Syria’s invisible mainstream rebel groups

'Those who dismiss “mainstream” rebel groups as being either too fragmented or too weak should note that they have spent much of 2014 battling both ISIS and the regime, and that they continue to control significant chunks of half a dozen provinces – namely Deraa, Qunaitra, Rural Damascus, Hama, Idlib and Aleppo.
“It’s very ironic that we’ve arrived at such a stage, in which the discussion of the Syrian opposition takes place the way it does. It’s as if the White House forgets how it’s systematically withheld support.”
He said the Obama administration’s repeated, dismissive references to the capabilities of the rebels – a “bunch of farmers and dentists,” as the president recently put it – would only end up working to do away with the moderate rebels for good, “so that Syria is divided between ISIS and Assad.”
“And even today, there are still [rebel] groups that haven’t abandoned the demands of the revolution, for a civil, democratic state.” '