The coalition consists of Jabhat al-Nusra and opposition groups that formerly enjoyed U.S. support, including Harakat Nour Al-Din Al-Zenki, according to reports
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According to Charles Lister, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, the U.S. State Department has designated a newly formed (and arguably the largest) coalition of “Syrian rebels” as a terrorist organization.
Looks like Washington has given up on the whole “moderate” thing.
Al Masdar News corroborates the claim:
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On Friday, the United States officially declared the newly formed Hayyat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) a terrorist group in a written statement. The jihadist coalition consists of Jabhat al-Nusra and some opposition groups that formerly enjoyed US support, including Harakat Nour Al-Din Al-Zenki.The US State Department stressed that the main leader of Hayyat Tahrir al-Sham is Abu Mohammad Al-Julani, commander-in-chief of Jabhat Fateh Al-Sham (formerly Al-Nusra Front), and therefore HTS should still be regarded as the Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda.
This terrorist designation comes as a major blow to the armed Syrian Opposition as Hayyat Tahrir Al-Sham is considered the single largest rebel faction in all of Syria.
As we’ve pointed out previously, despite several “re-brandings”, al-Nusra has never been able to hide the fact that it has received direct and indirect support from the CIA.
Now that HTS is officially a terrorist organization, it’s hard to believe that there are any “legitimate” rebel groups with any real power that are worth negotiating with.
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Who exactly is Assad supposed to negotiate with now? Turkey and Saudi Arabia?Now that Washington has distanced itself from essentially every major rebel group — not including the Kurds — one has to wonder why there had to be a devastating, 6-year war to begin with.
But that’s neither here nor there.
Filed under: Al Qaeda, ISIL, US Congress, US Foreign Policy, USA, War on Syria, Wars for Israel |