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Syria’s new opposition leader
敘利亞新任反對派領袖
Better than the one before?
會比上一任更出色嗎？
A different man faces the same problems
換個面孔處理相同問題
Jul 13th 2013 | CAIRO |From the print edition
Jarba’s turn at the top
輪到賈爾巴掌舵
SYRIANS can be forgiven for paying scant attention to the inauguration on July 6th of a new president of the Syrian National Coalition, the political opposition’s umbrella group in exile. The new man, Ahmed Jarba, is a leader of the powerful Shammar tribe, which has branches in Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. A former political prisoner, he hails from the north-eastern Syrian town of Hasaka.
敘利亞反對派的流亡傘狀組織——敘利亞全國聯盟——在七月六日迎來了一位新主席，而這場就職典禮卻未成為敘利亞人關注的焦點。但這也情有可原。新任主席為艾哈邁德·賈爾巴（Ahmed Jarba），他是強大的舍麥爾部族（Shammar tribe）的首領，此部族勢力強大，一直延伸至敘利亞、伊拉克以及沙特阿拉伯。他出生于敘利亞東北部的哈塞克鎮（Hasaka），曾經是一名政治犯。
He is a respected figure. Yet there is little reason to believe he will wield more influence than his predecessor, Moaz al-Khatib, a prominent Damascus cleric. The rivalry of the coalition’s two main Arab backers, Saudi Arabia, which is close to Mr Jarba, and Qatar, whose preferred candidate narrowly lost the election, has long hamstrung the opposition. Two days after Mr Jarba’s election, Ghassan Hitto, a protégé of Qatar who had been appointed as an interim prime minister in March, resigned, citing his failure to form a government in exile.
他確實受人尊敬，然而目前仍無法確信他的影響力會超過他的前任——備受尊崇的大馬士革傳教士Moaz al-Khatib。沙特阿拉伯和卡塔爾是聯盟中主要的阿拉伯國家支持者，而沙特與賈爾巴走的更近，卡塔爾的意向候選人則在大選中惜敗。這兩個國家長期以來的競爭是削弱反對派的重要原因。賈爾巴贏得大選兩天后，卡塔爾的門生Ghassan Hitto宣布辭職，理由是他未能成功組建一個流亡政府。他在今年三月被任命為臨時首相。
Mr Jarba may persuade Saudi Arabia to provide more humanitarian aid but, in view of Western anxiety over the increasing number of extremists in rebel-held parts of Syria, he is unlikely soon to secure advanced weapons to take on President Bashar Assad’s forces. Mr Assad’s tightening grip over the most populous cities along a north-south axis in Syria’s west has dimmed the prospects, always faint, of peace talks that were said to be in the offing in Geneva.
也許賈爾巴會說服沙特阿拉伯向其提供更多人道主義援助，但由于西方社會十分擔憂受反叛軍控制下的敘利亞部分地區中極端主義者數目激增，他不可能如此快速地得弄到先進武器來對付阿薩德的部隊。敘利亞西部阿薩德控制下的人口最多的幾個城市呈南北一線狀；而正是他的嚴格控制使得即將在日內瓦召開的，原本就撲朔迷離的和平談話的前景越加不明朗。
Meanwhile, the fighting opposition inside Syria is growing ever more fractious. Two rebels were reported to have been beheaded recently in Dana, a town in Idleb, a north-western province that is mainly in rebel hands, after they clashed with fighters from a rival group calling itself the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (“Greater Syria” in Arabic), which is tied to al-Qaeda. The group has been trying to make inroads into areas in the north that are held by more secular rebels. Mr Jarba has a tough task ahead.
同時，敘利亞境內的反對派武裝力量還在不斷失控中。有報道稱，在由反叛軍控制的敘利亞西北部的伊德利卜（Idleb）省達納鎮（Dana），兩名反對者在與一支競爭組織發生沖突后被處以極刑，后者自稱伊拉克伊斯蘭國和al-Sham（阿拉伯語，“大敘利亞”），并與基地組織交往甚密。這個組織一直試圖侵入敘利亞北部地區，而北部地區則為世俗反叛軍所持有。賈爾巴還將面臨嚴峻考驗。
