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2025-01-06 Syria-Lebanon-Iran
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As European and Arab leaders rush to meet Syria’s new leader, Israel calls for caution, Biden admin. oks NGO waivers
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[IsraelTimes] Ahmed al-Sharaa is hoping to convince the world that he’s left his jihadist past behind, but FM Gideon Sa’ar and other senior officials are not persuaded.
As Syria’s new government strives to gain international legitimacy after overthrowing the Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Terror of Aleppo ...
regime, Western countries seem open to giving a chance to the government led by Ahmed al-Sharaa, head of the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, formerly al-Nusra, before that it was called something else
...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State...
group.
At the same time, Israel is focused on making sure its allies don’t give a free pass to a man who led a brutal jihadist organization.
"It’s too early to believe this rebrand," an Israeli official told The Times of Israel.
On Friday, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot and his German counterpart Annalena Baerbock became the most senior Western diplomats to visit the Syrian capital since Islamist-led forces toppled longtime ruler Assad last month.
The two diplomats warned Sharaa that the transfer of power must be peaceful and inclusive. "This requires a political dialogue involving all ethnic and religious groups, involving men and equally women," said Baerbock.
"Sure, sure. Whatever. Give us money"
She also told Sharaa that the European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
stood ready to support the transition in Syria but cautioned that "Europa
...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
will not finance new Islamist structures."
Barrot met with Christian leaders in the country to discuss the transition toward a democratic Syria.
In Israel, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar is leading an effort to press the world to treat Sharaa’s government with extreme suspicion, while warning that European countries are too eager to overlook any potential problematic aspects of the new government in order to send back the millions of refugees who have fled the fighting since 2011.
"The world is talking about ’an orderly change of government in Syria,'" he told a conference last month. "But it’s not like a new government that today controls all of Syria was democratically elected.
"This is a terrorist gang that was previously in Idlib and took over the capital Damascus and other areas. The world would very much like to see them as a new and stable government because the countries want to return the refugees on their territory to Syria. But that’s not the case."
Sa’ar argued that minorities like Alawites, Kurds, and Christians are threatened by Sharaa’s new government.
"This is an Islamist government that will try to achieve unified control over all of Syria," he said.
Also last month, Sa’ar’s deputy Sharren Haskel accused Sharaa of being "a wolf in [sheep’s] clothes."
Speaking at a presser, Haskel held up a photo collage of Sharaa, showing his past as a member of various jihadist organizations.
"It is important to avoid falling for the attempt to whitewash jihadist [groups] in Syria. We know who they are and their true nature, even if they change their names, and we understand how dangerous they are to the West," said Haskel.
Sharaa, now Syria’s de facto leader, joined al-Qaeda in Iraq in 2003, where he was captured by US troops. After his release, he created the jihadist al-Nusra
...formally Jabhat an-Nusrah li-Ahli al-Sham (Support Front for the People of the Levant), also known as al-Qaeda in the Levant. They aim to establish a pan-Arab caliphate. Not the same one as the Islamic State, though .. ...
Front to fight against Assad in Syria.
The US State Department designated Sharaa a terrorist in 2013, and placed a $10 million bounty on his head four years later. Sharaa eventually broke his organization’s ties with al-Qaeda, and since 2017 has been working to present HTS as a moderate organization focused on governance and toppling Assad.
The US removed the bounty in December amid an attempt to improve relations with the new Syrian leadership.
Since coming to power in December, Sharaa has preached religious coexistence and promised not to enforce strict adherence to Islamic fundamental principles. He also traded his military garb for suits, and dropped his nom de guerre, Abu Muhammad al-Julani.
Israeli leaders besides the foreign minister have also been warning against too readily buying into Sharaa’s ostensible transformation.
During a visit to the recently captured peak of Mount Hermon, Defense Minister Israel Katz warned that the new Syrian rulers "pretend to present a moderate image, but belong to the most extreme Islamic sects."
Meanwhile,
...back at the wreckage, Captain Poindexter wished he had thought to pack sun block...
Arab diplomats have hurried to Damascus to meet Sharaa. After a sit-down in late December, Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi expressed support for "a government that represents all spectrums in Syria," as well as for "the drafting of a new constitution," according to official Jordanian TV.
"We agree to support the Syrian people in rebuilding their state," he was quoted as saying, adding that "the Arab countries agree to support Syria at this stage without any external interference."
Senior officials from Saudi Arabia
 ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat rational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start...
and Qatar
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
have also been to Damascus to meet Sharaa.
Ukraine too has rushed to reset ties after the fall of Assad, who allied himself closely with Russia. Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha met Sharaa last week, and President Volodymyr Zelensky sent 500 tons of grain to Syria and said Kyiv could contribute to stabilizing the country.
Though HTS leaders celebrated the devastating Hamas
..a regional Iranian catspaw,...
assault on Israel on October 7, 2023, the new Syrian leadership stresses that it is not interested in a fight with Israel.
Sharaa said that his new regime is "committed to the 1974 agreement and we are prepared to return the UN [monitors]," referring to peacekeeping forces that manned the demilitarized zone alongside Syrian troops.
"We do not want any conflict, whether with Israel or anyone else, and we will not let Syria be used as a launchpad for attacks. The Syrian people need a break, and the strikes must end and Israel has to pull back to its previous positions," Sharaa told The Times of London earlier this month.
The new governor of Damascus has also emphasized that the newly installed government wants to have cordial relations with Israel. "We have no fear toward Israel, and our problem is not with Israel," Maher Marwan told NPR last month. "There exists a people who want coexistence. They want peace. They don’t want disputes."
"And we don’t want to meddle in anything that will threaten Israel’s security or any other country’s security," he said. "We want peace, and we cannot be an opponent to Israel or an opponent to anyone."
Israel has also signaled its desire to have "correct ties" with the new regime, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in early December. But "if this regime allows Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate Jews Zionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
to reestablish itself in Syria, or allows the transfer of Iranian weapons or any other weapons to Hezbollah, or attacks us, we will respond forcefully and we will exact a heavy price from it."
US Biden administration to ease aid restrictions for Syria in limited gesture to new government — WSJ
[IsraelTimes] The Biden administration plans to announce Monday that it will ease restrictions on US humanitarian aid for Syria, speeding delivery of basic supplies without lifting sanctions that restrict other assistance to the new government in Damascus, the Wall Street Journal reports.
The step, approved by the administration over the weekend, authorizes the Treasury Department to issue waivers to aid groups and companies providing essentials such as water, electricity and other humanitarian supplies, the WSJ reports, citing officials.
| “Go ahead and give ‘em money, guys. Don’t worry that some of them are evil, or that President Trump will have a different policy in two weeks.” |
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Posted by trailing wife 2025-01-06 00:00||
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File under: Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (al-Nusra)
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Posted by Super Hose 2025-01-06 14:12||
2025-01-06 14:12||
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