And next, Syria?

[HeAthen]

If I was Israeli Id be more worried about flowering of real democracy in middle east. As ordinary people would ask their governments to do more

This is a really important point, and one which Israel and especially under Netanyahu have done their utmost to prevent.

 

[zahir]

SDF offering to talk to the new regime

Mazloum Abdi: SDF is ready to communicate with new authority in Damascus - Enab Baladi

The commander-in-chief of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), Mazloum Abdi, expressed his readiness to communicate with the new authority in […]

english.enabbaladi.net

 

[The39thStep]

Interview with Aaron Zelin about al-Jolani and HTS

What to Know About the Man Who Toppled Assad

Abu Mohammad al-Jolani has worked for years to rebrand himself, but has he truly broken from his al Qaeda past?

foreignpolicy.com

archived version: https://archive.ph/N6W89

I think Zelin's articles generally are well researched , focussed and more often than not he sees the wood for the trees. However one has to ask on occasions exactly who his audience is. His short pamphlet on HTS , The Age of Political Jihadism ( mid 2022) for example is a good read but essentially is posed as policy advice regarding whether HTS's status as a terrorist group should be reviewed. A legitimate task if one is advising or wants to be a voice in advising US foreign policy however for those of us not in that position a more poignant filter would be what would it be like to live under a HTS regime and what can be learned from their record.

Zelin has a good summary of their record in Idlib in pages 30-42 of the above pamphlet https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/sites/default/files/pdf/PolicyFocus175Zelinv2.pdf.


That isn't to say that HTS cannot be pragmatic, after all for a group that celebrated October 7th its recent pronouncement on having 'no problem with Israel' is probably informed by the Israeli state's firepower rather than diversity and inclusion. Support for the killing of Thomas Partey by one of it supporters and propagandists also doesn't fit its current anti global lets keep it local jihadism.

For HTS, having the terrorist label removed officially would obviously open up Western states' support for their new regime. I suspect that HTS's recent pronouncement that they want to implement a free market to attract investment will further cement their credentials to the West. The limitation of the current ''I have recently heard some very good things about HTS '' is that it doesn't answer the question of why we never heard some very good things about HTS until they looked useful in liquidating global jihadist militias, with whom they were competing, and then with Turkey's assistance looking as they might be a force in the overthrow of Assad. Zelin's section on HTS's governance of Idlib goes someway to explaining this.

 

[zahir]

This is the kind of thing every armchair cynic and expert will pick holes in and say is fake but isn't life really just this crazy random and shocking at points? I don't know how anyone could stage this, what with the guy going into shock etc.

This must be the luckiest cunt in Syria, one more day and he would surely be dead.

That twitter post seems to have been removed but the video can be watched here.

eta: more of the video here

 

[zahir]

Interview with the new governor of Damascus video