Syria’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) government has been unclear about what their position will be on the Palestinians. That’s an important issue because there is a large Palestinian population within Syria. It’s also an important topic because the US has recently issued demands for Syria to “ban” all Palestinian groups from operating or fundraising in the country.
HTS hasn’t made any public statements, but they did recently meet with Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas in Damascus, a meeting that Israel was trying to prevent. That hints toward engagement with the Palestinian Authority, but how on the heels of that, the HTS has also arrested two top Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) members.
The two were identified as PIJ’s Syrian head Khaled Khaled, and the group’s organizing committee for Syria leader Abu Ali Yasser. No official Syrian statement about the arrests have been made, and some media are suggesting there hasn’t even been an official charge yet.
PIJ has long had a substantial presence in Syria, and was often alligned with the Assad-era government, even though they are a Sunni Islamist faction which ideologically would seem to have more in common with HTS and the other rebels that eventually took power in Syria.
PIJ is a separate faction from Fatah and Hamas, though in recent years there has been speculation they were moving closer to Fatah. Iran broke off financial support for PIJ about a decade ago, and since then the group has tried to present itself as a more moderate faction than Hamas.
The US demands, also issued over the weekend, were that the Syria ban fundraising and operations of all Palestinian groups inside Syria. They did not specify which groups they were referring to, and in return the administration only promised to “consider” extending the Biden-era sanction waiver for Syria, not guarantee its extension.
Though PIJ was probably among the intended targets for the US, it’s not clear these arrests would be at all sufficient to satisfy US demands, and given how angry Israel reportedly is over Abbas’ visit to Damascus, the US might well see the HTS still in defiance for even allowing such an official visit.
Though the timing of the arrests suggest HTS may be trying to placate the US, this is still short of their demands, and without official statements from the HTS on where they actually stand, it’s likely to still be a matter of speculation.
