The Islamists have captured Aleppo, the largest city in northern Syria located between northeastern Lebanon and Turkey, and are continuing their advance. They control around fifty towns and villages. This is the Assad regime’s biggest loss of territory in years.
The Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (Levant Liberation Organization, HTC), designated terrorist by the UN, comes from the Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda. Its current leader is former Syrian al-Qaeda leader Abu Mohammed al-Joulani.
Turkey, a U.S. ally and NATO member, has given the green light to the blitzkrieg offensive against Assad and his allies Russia, Iran and regional Shiite militias, including Lebanon’s Hezbollah. Nine hundred American soldiers are however deployed in another region of Syria to fight the Islamists.
Israeli television KAN News reported that US Secretary of State Blinken asked Turkey to restrict the actions of rebel groups in Syria to which it provides aid.
The AFP correspondent on site reports that the jihadists and allied Turkish fighters received orders from Turkish intelligence services via a joint operations center.
A few days before the offensive against Aleppo, the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth revealed that the head of Shin Bet (Israel’s domestic intelligence service) had secretly traveled to Türkiye to meet the head of the Turkish secret service.
Who is with whom and against whom?
It’s difficult to navigate this muddle. A former Israeli military intelligence officer, Lt. Col. Mordechai Kedar, claims that Israel has ties to Syrian Islamist fighters. Now an orientalist university researcher, he says he is in “permanent contact” with them. Kidar reveals that he sent senior Israeli officials a detailed list of equipment they requested to receive from Israel.
It wouldn’t be anything new. In 2015, the Wall Street Journal reported that Israel was treating al-Qaeda fighters from the Nusra Front wounded fighting the Syrian army. In 2019, Israeli army chief of staff General Gadi Eisenkot acknowledged that Israel had supplied weapons to Islamist armed groups in Syria.
Divide and conquer
Do the United States and Israel support the Assad regime or the Islamist advance through Syria to overthrow it? Do they prefer an Islamist government to Assad, an ally of Iran and Russia?
I think they have an interest in keeping Syria divided. Their main interest is to harm Iran and Russia while combating any Islamist resurgence. Since the beginning of November, the Israeli air force has carried out strikes in Syria almost daily. Against the regime and against the Islamists.
Both Israelis and Americans do not want to see the Islamic State take over Damascus, but rather for the weakened Assad regime to remain in power. Mission accomplished.
Moreover, the Islamist advance comes as Trump has just announced that Tulsi Gabbard is his designated head of the intelligence services. One of his most controversial candidates, she has made numerous glowing statements in support of Assad and his regime.
