When Britain Aided Al-Qaeda in Syria
The U.K.’s campaign to overthrow the Assad regime provides key background to understanding Whitehall’s approach to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, writes Mark Curtis.
Beginning in 2011, Britain embarked on a campaign to overthrow the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria, in cooperation with its key allies the U.S., Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey.
Military training and weapons were given to armed opposition forces who were often collaborating with jihadist groups, in effect supporting and empowering them.
One major beneficiary of the secret campaign was Jabhat Al-Nusra, the al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria founded by Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, who later rebranded his militant force as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).
Al-Jolani now appears to be the key power-broker in Damascus after the fall of the Assad regime. He has been presenting his “moderate” credentials to the West for some years, with great effect.
Former MI6 chief Sir John Sawers now says that HTS is more a “liberation movement” than a terrorist force, despite being a proscribed organisation in the U.K.
Similarly, Foreign Secretary David Lammy recently told Parliament that while al-Qaeda has killed “hundreds of British citizens in barbaric attacks spanning decades”, HTS has offered “reassurances” and should be “judged by their actions”.
Lammy has said the U.K. is now in “diplomatic contact” with HTS, and photographs have emerged of a Foreign Office delegation meeting al-Jolani in Damascus.
Britain’s campaign in Syria, snippets of which were occasionally reported in the media at the time, is now being largely ignored by that same media.
The U.K. policy of working with whoever to achieve foreign policy goals is once more in evidence, and might again have severe consequences.
Assad’s Brutality
The Syria uprising, part of the Arab Spring that convulsed many countries in the Middle East, began in March 2011 when popular demonstrations broke out against Assad’s repressive regime.
The Syrian army resorted to violence to try to quell the challenge to its authority, routinely firing into crowds of peaceful protestors and subjecting detainees to torture. Amnesty International soon found that the regime was committing war crimes.
The U.S. and Britain had long wanted to remove Assad to recreate the Middle East. Former French Foreign Minister Roland Dumas said that in 2009 “top British officials” (then working in the Labour government under Prime Minister Gordon Brown) told him they were organising an invasion of rebels into Syria and asked “if I wanted to participate.”
https://consortiumnews.com/2024/12/19/when-britain-aided-al-qaeda-in-syria/