National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said on Sunday that the US will not “cry” over the pressure the Syrian government and its allies are facing from an offensive on Aleppo led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an offshoot of al-Qaeda.
Sullivan acknowledged that HTS was “a terrorist organization designated by the United States” and said the US has “real concerns about the designs and objectives of that organization.”
But he added, “At the same time, of course, we don’t cry over the fact that the Assad government, backed by Russia, Iran and Hezbollah, are facing certain kinds of pressure.”
HTS captured Aleppo following a surprise offensive that was launched last Wednesday, which came after Israel stepped up airstrikes on Syria.
US officials have not been shy in the past about their preference for HTS and its leader, Abu Mohammad al-Julani, over other factions in Syria. James Jeffrey, an American diplomat who served as a special envoy to Syria under the Trump administration from 2018-2020, said in a 2021 interview that HTS was “an asset” to the US’s strategy in Idlib, a northwestern Syrian province that’s been under HTS control since 2017.
“They are the least bad option of the various options on Idlib, and Idlib is one of the most important places in Syria, which is one of the most important places right now in the Middle East,” Jeffrey said.
Julani was formerly the leader of al-Nusra Front, which was the al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria. In 2016, Julani publicly announced he was splitting with al-Qaeda and changed his group’s name to Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, which merged with other Islamist groups to form HTS in 2017.
Julani’s rebranding campaign was part of an effort to gain more support from the West. Jeffrey said he was in regular contact with Julani and HTS while he was working as the US envoy to Syria. Jeffrey said a typical message from al-Julani was like this, “This is what we’re doing. These are our goals. We’re not a threat to you.”
Jeffrey said he responded to Julani by saying, “I couldn’t agree more. … Keep me informed as often as possible.”
Al-Qaeda and other extremist groups always made up a significant portion of the opposition to Assad after the war broke out in 2011. In 2012, Jake Sullivan, who worked as an aide to then-Secretary of State Hilary Clinton at the time, told his boss in an email released by WikiLeaks that “AQ (al-Qaeda) is on our side in Syria.”
Of course not. He has a orgasm just thinking about war. Using terrorists is the norm.
A wargasm.
Touché Ole!
No they would not, especially given that the US is probably funding and arming a lot of this at Israel's order.
HTS is US terrorist Army in Syria…!
An Absolute Lie…!
There you have it. He said all that can be said about how we use terrorists to destabilize countries. He doesn't give a $hit about Human Rights, Freedom, or Democracy.
What a f*cked up government the deranged Biden pack is and they will be replaced by the same f*cked up deranged Trump conman pack.
Deranged F*cked up Netanyahu and his f*cked up Likud government with the criminal f*cked up Trump and his criminal team and control of nuclear weapons is a nightmare.
Do we really deserve that?
Double F-up or F-up to the power of two doesn't leave any room to do numero dos…!
LOL, yes, we are Americans. We believe in American exceptionalism. We have democracy, free will. We vote in our leaders to represent our individualism, our capitalism, our freedom. We are enlightened. We rule the free world.
But…
We're too debilitated to do anything about it.
When interviewing him, Robert Fisk was taken aback by Bin Laden's justification for attacking American "civilians" (in many cases they were American military or CIA operatives). Bin Laden basically understood that democracy meant "rule by the people."
We are the ones who are content to let our "elected representatives" bop their heads up in down for Netanyahu in congress, lament how bad of a choice we have between a genocider and a mercurial, thin skinned, fear mongering imbecile who is happy to surround himself with genociders and their supporters.
Yeah, we kinda of deserve it.
They don’t cry over rapes, torture, the brutal murders of civilians, including infants and children.
Psychopaths have no regrets or remorse. They rather enjoy misery.
Of course, Jake Sullivan is not unhappy with the CIA backed group he launched into Syria. He most likely approved funding for that American financed group!
The outgoing proxy occupant of the White House is only doing the bidding of Mr. obama who hates Assad and has been trying to foment regime change for 10 years in Syria.
Well its hard for anyone to be worse than the Assad régime so I have to agree
There are plenty that are just as bad. And some even worse. The US has allies in both of those groups. And I would imagine another proxy war won't be too pleasant for the civilian population. Or did you forget about them?
It would be bad
But Syria needs stability, and it seems like Assad cannot gurantee that better than some of the democratic rebel groups.
Assad is in power because his family is from a minority group, the nation didn't want one of the powerful Sunni or Shiite leaders to come in and turn the place into a theocracy.
None of the "democratic rebel" groups are ever going to get near power, they don't have the numbers or even close and to call them democratic is a huge stretch anyway, considering they don't have popular support and fighting against the government that does.
Assad has a more legit claim to being democratically elected than anyone else in the country.
If Assad falls it will be to radicals and people who want to put Sharia law into effect.
Assad also put several reforms into place despite fighting with an incredibly powerful intelligence apparatus who opposed any changes.
The chances of Syria being better off if the Assad government falls are slim and none and slim was never in the building.
What's wrong with Muslims in the Middle East wanting shariah? If people cared at all about Middle Easterners, they wouldn't be preferring a two-bit minority-baathist, family rule, dentist-turned-butcher who lost control over his country to outside intervention.
"Dentist-turned-butcher….
Assad is an ophthalmologist, not a dentist.
Thanks for the correctuon. Yes, ophthalmologist.
I suppose if all the people wanted it it would be fine, but they don't so it will only be terrible for most people, who won't want to live under it.
Furthermore, you can blame Assad for the mess if you want, I don't because I know who instigated this uprising and it wasn't him. Obama and his cronies spent billions arming the rebels.
The people who decided to use Western aid to try to overthrow his government have done untold damage to the nation, far from good guys they are scumbags, just like the scumbags here who armed them.
Why should Assad be blamed, no leader is going to remain fully in control when that happens.
If Assad is Bad, which I tend to think most leaders are, the rest of them are downright Horrible.
Actually the majority want shariah including Syria according to PEW.
Minority family dynasties ruling over the majority is a savage British and French tactic after WWI to oppress the people of the Middle East.
The Syrian people demonstrated peacefully and were met with violence in response the opposition began to arm. The initial problem is with him not the people of Syria.
I know the full history and I know that the people where not behind the Jihadists either and when push came to shove most of the people sided with Assad. Yes, there were problem, but did you know that the West was already flooding Non-Peaceful people into the protests who were attacking outposts and this was well before the special police, NOT ASSAD, cracked down? Did you know that he agreed to constitutional reforms, that reigned in the special police who had abused protesters and that this settled the protests? I suspect you do, but you don’t mention that part. The fact is that the people sided with Assad after the protests ended because the threat of terrorism and Jihadists was far worse, so did the vast majority of Sunni’s in his government.
Billions of dollars in Western weapons flooded into Syria and the opposition still could not get the people on their side, mercenaries from around the globe had to be brought in instead. There are no great guys in this fight, Assad is the least bad. And let’s not pretend that ANY of the Western Backed groups had popular support or that they were good guys themselves, none of them were. Every single one of the opposition groups was objectively WORSE than Assad. Who is it you think should replace him? Al Qaeda or ISIS? Seriously, who do you think deserves to run the country? Do the Kurds get to Run Syria, do you think that’s going to work? LOL Come on man, get real. Assad is the only game in town that can run the country without it being far worse than it is today. If he dies the government will appoint someone just like him because it’s what worked and would have continued to work if the West wasn’t bankrolling terrorists to cause trouble.
What I know is that people all across the ME including Syrians don’t want foreign intervention. They do want Islamic rule. The opposition is still weak but is getting stronger. No one but Syria’s enemies are happy about alqaeda and ISIS taking over. These rebels fought them. In long bloody battles like this one it takes a long time but eventually a consensus rejecting Assad and ISIS will form.
I’ll have to disagree with that being the best way forward for Syria, but I can agree to disagree, if you are right I hope it turns out better than this mess.
I am personally connected to Syrians in the diaspora here in the US and the West. Many are extremely happy. Yes a lot of it is wishful thinking but Syrians want a free Syria that is not ruled by Assad or alqaeda. It is still a long path to freedom. One thing is evident that if Syria is unified it will turn its attention to the genocidal state next door.
Thanks for the polite discussion and lets all hope that one way or another the Genocide ends soon and peace is restored to the region and justice is served to the perpetrators.
Amen to that.
"democratic rebel groups"
Seek help.
US must be dancing instead of crying…!
And angles dance on pinheads…
deleted by me
LOL… left to our imagination….
Did anyone ask him about martial law declared in S Korea?
South Korean president declares martial law and accuses opposition of ‘anti-state’ activity
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law Tuesday, vowing to eliminate “anti-state” forces as he struggles against an opposition that controls the country’s parliament and that he accuses of sympathizing with communist North Korea.
The surprising move harkened back to an era of authoritarian leaders that the country has not seen since the 1980s, and it was immediately denounced by the opposition and the leader of Yoon’s own conservative party.
Following Yoon’s announcement, South Korea’s military proclaimed that parliament and other political gatherings that could cause “social confusion” would be suspended, according to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency.
The military also said that the country’s striking doctors should return to work within 48 hours, Yonhap said. Thousands of doctors have been striking for months over government plans to expand the number of students at medical schools. The military said anyone who violates the decree could be arrested without a warrant.
https://apnews.com/article/south-korea-yoon-martial-law-997c22ac93f6a9bece68454597e577c1
the parliament took it down just now
Interesting. Will search.
Oh No! The popular masses are rising up against the quisling government in power. With the empire unraveling, what is Genocide Joe going to do?
I inversely as the same question; what is genocide Putin going to do?
More genocide of course.
Thanks @existentialdread:disqus for this reminder. Here we go again. And we can't understand why maybe the North and South koreans who ethnically and linguistically share the same heritage may want to unify. All Americans should be telling our government to get out of the demilitarized zone now.
Things seem muddled but it's simple to understand what's happening.
1. Assad regime has always been a corrupt (family-rule) two-bit dictatorship not representing the aspirations and basic freedoms of his people.
2. In 2011, the Syrian population initially came out peacefully and seeking self determination which they had an absolute right to do so.
3. Israel/US, Russia, Iran and Turkey are all taking advantage.
4. Selfish intervention is always bad but intervention is relative.
5. Israel is the worst because its a cancer in the region (not because its Israel but because it only serves its own twisted interests, and doing a bad job at it to the point of self destructing,)
6. Russia and US are fighting proxy wars and have little or no concern for the dignity of the people of Syria.
7. Iran while a part of the region and an enemy of Israel, it exploits Asad's weakness to maintain its influence. Its problem is that it doesn't seek the interests of the majority but the shia minority and only the ones who agree with it.
8. Turkey is far from perfect, however, it shares a border with Syria, wants calm in Syria at least to return the couple of million Syrians made refugees, is threatened by communist leaning Kurds (btw, which the US supports, but that's no surprise to you.)
9. "Islamist" groups are bad
HTS is an "Islamist" group
HTS is bad
That's like the debunked stupid Zionist talking point "Hamas is ISIS"
or its like saying
The Republican party is pro Zionist
Ron Paul is Republican (He was when he ran for President)
Ron Paul is a Zionist
10. What's happening now is that Syrians are gaining SOME agency. The big powers mentioned above don't really want any one side to gain complete control unless it's totally in their control which is impossible. Therefore, for now they are content to See Syria weak and bleeding just like Palestine, Iraq, Yemen, Lebanon, Libya and sudan.
Finally, the majority in these nations are majority Arab, Sunnis who pretty much share the same region.
Mohamad Al Shami محمد الشامي 🇾🇪🇵🇸 reposted
Suppressed News.
@SuppressedNws
An Israeli Mossad agent named Elizabeth Tsurkov used to work in Syria and Iraq to incite strife and division.
If you think the current conflicts among Muslims are organic, you’re mistaken.
In the image she’s holding a sign that reads: “Long live Syria…down with Assad”
Media source:
@mamashami