Al Shara's appointment as Syria's President sparks fears of new iron rule
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Arabian Post
2 days ago
- Arabian Post
Al-Shaara Proved He is Still a Jihadist Commander
By Manish Rai Recently, we saw large-scale violence targeting the Syrian Druze community in Sweida province in southern Syria. Druze are a small religious minority group in Syria and are around 3.20% of the total Syrian population. As per the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) Syrian interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa's forces and allied militias have carried out massacres in Sweida, and approximately 600 members of the Druze community have been killed, including 140 women and children. This eruption of violence was an eerie reminder of a series of violent attacks that have been launched against the Syrian religious and ethnic minorities since the current regime came to power. The Syrian National Army (SNA), which is also part of a coalition led by President Ahmad Al-Shaara's group Hayat Taheer Al-Sham (HTS) attacked Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in North-East Syria in December 2024. In particular, fierce fighting along the Tishreen Dam became the focal point. In March, indiscriminate killings of Alawites were carried out in the Syrian coastal areas, especially in the city of Banias. While exact figures remain difficult to verify, more than 1,300 individuals, most of them Alawites, lost their lives. In some cases, entire families were summarily executed. These atrocities were solely directed against the Alawite minority and instigated by militias affiliated with the new regime, ostensibly as part of a response to attacks in Latakia and Tartous from armed groups affiliated with the deposed Assad regime. In the name of fighting former President Bashar Al-Assad, loyalist collective punishment was inflicted on the Alawite community. In June this year church in the Syrian capital of Damascus was rocked by a suicide explosion; in this deadly attack, 25 people were killed. The Syrian authorities blamed the attack on the Islamic State (IS) group. However, a lesser-known Sunni extremist group, Saraya Ansar al-Sunnah, claimed responsibility for this attack. Many analysts believe this little-known group has deep links with HTS, as their relations with HTS stretch back to before the Bashar Al-Assad regime's fall. Then, it was allegedly part of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham's broader coalition and helped HTS recruit cells to operate inside Assad-held territory. If we look at the pattern of all these past attacks, it clearly indicates that they were carried out on the instructions or at least with tacit approval of the current Syrian regime. The objective of these attacks was to subdue the minorities through terror, so they wouldn't demand their political rights. The current Syrian regime got emboldened by the recent lifting of Western sanctions and the informal recognition it got from Arab states and the United States. In May 2025, the US president met Ahmad Al-Shaara in the Saudi capital Riyadh and expressed admiration for him. He went further and mentioned Al-Shaara as a strongman, the brute, the resilient survivor, and declared him a 'Tough guy with a very strong past.' The US president should have done research and dug more into the past of Al-Shaara, as his past is one marked by links to al-Qaeda, nothing else. ADVERTISEMENT HTS subscribes to the Salafist school of thought, which is the same as Al-Qaeda's. The group imposed strict Islamic rule in areas it controlled in the past, and civilians in those areas say the group's practices are like those of the Islamic State. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham used to host a significant number of foreign fighters, including Arabs, Turks, Chechens, Uzbeks, and Muslims from China's Xinjiang province. The group's attitude toward heterodox minorities like the Druze and Alawites never changed. There is, for example, a small community of Druze in northern Idlib whose inhabitants were forced to convert to Islam by HTS predecessor, Al-Nusra Front, in 2015. We should always be mindful of the fact that Hayat Tahrir al-Sham is no different from Al-Qaeda; it's just the old wine in a new bottle. In January 2017, HTS was born out of the merger of Salafi jihadists from mainly Harakat Nour al-Din al-Zinki, Liwa al-Haq, Jaysh al-Sunna, and Jabhat Ansar al-Din with Al-Nusra Front. HTS tried to showcase through various mergers with other groups that it has ended its affiliation with Al-Qaeda, but definitely, these mergers did not indicate an ideological split with Al-Qaeda but were part of a strategy to increase the group's appeal within Syria. Ahmad Al-Shaara should come to his senses and understand the fact that just by taking off his military attire and wearing a business suit, he can't fool the world. Syria is a multiethnic society consisting of Sunni Arabs, Kurds, Assyrians, Armenians, Turkomans, Alawites, Druze, and Yazidis. To keep the country united and stable, the future Syrian state should be a nation that accommodates and grants rights to all the ethnic and religious groups, so that everyone feels their participation in running the state. Unless the current regime doesn't follow this approach honestly, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) must be isolated and marginalized by the international community. As with the current jihadist ideology and criminal actions, the current regime of Al-Shaara remains a ticking time bomb that arguably poses a greater long-term threat to the region and Syria's stability. Also published on Medium. Notice an issue? Arabian Post strives to deliver the most accurate and reliable information to its readers. If you believe you have identified an error or inconsistency in this article, please don't hesitate to contact our editorial team at editor[at]thearabianpost[dot]com. We are committed to promptly addressing any concerns and ensuring the highest level of journalistic integrity. 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Middle East Eye
3 days ago
- Middle East Eye
Jordan fuelling 'internal crisis' with Palestine solidarity crackdown, sources say
Jordanian authorities are inadvertently fuelling an "internal crisis" with their decision to crack down on Palestine solidarity activists, sources have told Middle East Eye. The sources said that the situation was reaching a boiling point due to Jordan's intelligence services launching a heavy-handed campaign of arrests targeting activists, political opponents and party leaders. The arrests come amid mounting instability in neighbouring Syria, worsening conditions for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Israel pursuing a campaign of genocide by starvation in Gaza. On Wednesday, Jordanian authorities arrested the prominent social media activist Ayman Aballi, days after he published a video denouncing what he called the country's "silence" over Israel's starvation policy in Gaza. Criticism of the intelligence services, commonly known as the Mukhabarat, was already escalating after a young man died in police custody a day after his arrest, the sources told MEE. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters Local media reported that tensions began to escalate after Ahmed al-Ibrahim died in police custody after being subject to a "severe physical assault" during detention. According to his family, Ibrahim was taken to a nearby hospital on multiple occasions while at the Ramtha police station in Ar-Ramtha, 5km from the Syrian border. He reportedly succumbed to his injuries hours after being transferred to the hospital for the final time. His death triggered a night of anger in Ar-Ramtha, with videos seen by MEE showing angry protesters blocking roads, setting tyres on fire and demanding full accountability. Jordan targeting Gaza solidarity in largest arrest campaign in decades Read More » On the same day that Ibrahim died, security forces arrested Yanal Freihat, an MP from the Islamic Action Front (IAF) party, over a Facebook post in which he criticised the government's stance on the Muslim Brotherhood. Security forces also briefly detained Muslim Brotherhood spokesman Moaz al-Khawaldeh, before releasing him the following day. "The security forces are creating an internal crisis and causing an unprecedented wave of anger in the streets," a Jordanian political analyst told MEE on condition of anonymity, due to fear of reprisals. "This comes at a time when Jordan is facing serious external threats that require internal unity, not deep political and societal divisions. "Jordan now faces two major, unprecedented strategic threats. The first is the threat of the collapse of the Syrian state and the secession of Sweida with Israeli support, possibly sparking a widespread civil war that would impact the region and Jordan," the analyst said. "The second is the threat of the displacement of Palestinians from the West Bank to Jordan, leading to a change in the demographic composition of the Hashemite kingdom." Jordan needs internal stability One of the sources MEE spoke to emphasised that in both cases, Jordan needed internal stability to confront these threats. Neighbouring Syria has been beset with another round of deadly sectarian clashes, with Israel seeking to exploit the vacuum in the war-torn state. The violence was reportedly triggered by a petty crime on 11 July, when a Bedouin gang allegedly robbed and then kidnapped a Druze merchant. This prompted a series of tit-for-tat sectarian kidnappings and killings. When Syrian security forces entered the province to restore order, they were ambushed by Druze fighters. Jordan forcibly evicting Bedul Bedouins in Petra, says Human Rights Watch Read More » Reports that the Druze fighters executed government forces and killed women and children caused widespread outrage. As Syria's government deployed more troops, including tanks and heavy weapons, Israel began attacking them and military positions across the country. The source said that amid the wave of arrests, the security services were being attacked for cracking down on Jordanian civil society while "turning a blind eye to the real threat posed by Israeli activity in the region". In April, a Jordanian opposition website claimed that the government had launched a widespread arrest campaign against activists, in addition to its decision to target the Muslim Brotherhood. It claimed that this was reportedly in response to demands from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and aimed at obtaining financial aid from both countries. Earlier this month, tribesmen from the city of Tafilah gathered and organised a sit-in near the intelligence headquarters in Amman, to demand the release of 72-year-old Ahmed al-Zarqan, a former mayor of the southern Jordanian city. Zarqan is the deputy general supervisor of the Muslim Brotherhood, which was recently banned in the Hashemite kingdom. Security forces arrested him in late April. To date, Zarqan has not been charged, referred to court, or allowed to contact a lawyer. His family has not been allowed to visit him. Anger grows over 1994 'normalisation' As the situation in Gaza deteriorates, Jordanian authorities have faced unprecedented criticism over Amman's diplomatic relations with Israel. The two countries normalised relations in 1994 and are known to cooperate on numerous regional security issues. Massive protests have erupted over the 1994 accord and the genocidal war on Gaza, where at least 58,000 Palestinians have been killed, most of them civilians. Anger has also been steadily rising over Israel's occupation of the West Bank and the mounting civilian death toll. Jordan has a lengthy and complicated relationship with the West Bank, after occupying the area and East Jerusalem in 1948, before annexing them in 1950. Jordan offered citizenship to the Palestinians living there, including refugees, and ruled the West Bank until losing it to Israel during the 1967 war. Although the West Bank had been formally incorporated inside the kingdom, the 1950 annexation agreement decreed Jordanian rule a temporary arrangement, to be held in trust until a final resolution was found for the Palestinian issue. Following the 1967 war, Israel encouraged Jews to settle in the West Bank, providing land, military protection, electricity, water and roads. Some Israeli Jews justify settlement on religious grounds, but many Israelis consider control of the territory necessary to prevent Palestinians from attacking Israel.
The National
3 days ago
- The National
Syrian and Israeli officials discuss de-escalation in Paris meeting
Syrian and Israeli officials held talks on de-escalating the situation in Syria during US-mediated discussions in Paris on Thursday, US special envoy Tom Barrack said. 'I met this evening with the Syrians and Israelis in Paris. Our goal was dialogue and de-escalation, and we accomplished precisely that,' Mr Barrack said in a post on X. 'All parties reiterated their commitment to continuing these efforts." Hundreds of people have been killed in the southern Syrian province of Sweida amid clashes involving Druze fighters, Bedouin tribes and government forces. Israel launched air strikes on Syria in what it said was a move to protect the Druze. Mr Barrack did not name the officials involved in the talks. But Axios quoted two Israeli officials as saying their country's delegation was led by Minister for Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer, a close confidant of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Syrian Foreign Minister Assad Al Shibani represented Damascus at the meeting. It had initially been thought that the talks would take place in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku. It was the first meeting between the parties since the crisis erupted last week in Sweida and Israel launched strikes on Damascus. It would also mark the first ministerial meeting between the new Syrian government and Israel. The two countries have technically been at war since 1948 and Israel has occupied the Golan Heights since 1967. Israel launched air strikes on Syrian government positions in the Druze-majority province, saying it wanted to protect the minority community after the violence erupted. Israel also struck Damascus, hitting an area of the presidential palace and the army headquarters. Syrian government forces left Sweida under a ceasefire announced by the authorities. Before the violence, Syrian and Israeli officials had met in Baku, sources said, which coincided with a visit to Azerbaijan by Syrian President Ahmad Al Shara. The meeting addressed southern Syria and touched on the potential for a broader peace deal, the sources added.
