British media touts ‘diversity-friendly jihadists’
Syrian jihadist forces that recently led the surprise assault on the city of Aleppo could be better than the current regime at governing people and protecting minorities, a piece published in The Telegraph has argued.
The column reports on the PR campaign by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the Idlib-based terrorist group formerly known as Al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra, and its current leader Abu Mohammad al-Jolani. Last week, it conducted a military offensive against Syrian government forces and, together with allied militant groups, managed to overrun Aleppo.
The author, Aaron Zelin, is a research fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a pro-Israeli think tank. He argued that, despite the origins and authoritarian nature of HTS, it could prove to be “ready to govern as well as fight.”
Jolani, who has a $10 million US bounty on his head, has made a number of remarks to “make sure that no one harasses or harms the Christian or Kurdish community” in Idlib, Zelin said. One of his statements used the phrase “diversity is a strength” – a phrase “more redolent of Western HR departments than jihadist warlords,” the researcher claimed. HTS has called Aleppo “a meeting place of civilization with cultural and religious diversity for all Syrian,” the article said.
While Zelin acknowledged that the messaging may be just a PR campaign, he said the terrorist group’s opposition to the government of President Bashar Assad make it appealing to some people in the West. But other officials cited the maxim that the “enemy of my enemy can still be my enemy.”
Syria was plunged into a protracted war in 2011, as various anti-government groups sought to topple the Assad government. Jihadist forces, particularly those employing foreign fighters and receiving military assistance from abroad, emerged as dominant players among the opposition. Meanwhile, the US and other Western nations, which demanded that “Assad must go,” claimed that “moderate rebels” could ultimately prevail in the conflict.
Russia intervened in the hostilities in 2015, lending its airpower to Damascus. The Syrian government restored control over most of the country, but some places, including Idlib province near the Turkish border, remain outside of its reach.
Israel has accused Damascus of providing cover for Iran to conduct military activities on Syrian soil, including by providing weapons to the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah. The Israeli military regularly conducts airstrikes in Syria, claiming that it is countering Tehran’s “malign” actions there.
