Julani met West to warn Israel: Back off or we go to Iran!
(This is a reprint from NewsBred)
Syria’s new leader, Mohammed al-Julani, has met a flurry of Western leaders in a month since he has been in power.
Delegations from the Gulf monarchies, puppets of the West, have also made beeline to Damascus in rapid succession.
The United States has done away with the $10m bounty on Julani’s head.
The US is also considering to take Julani’s rebel group, the HTS (Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham) , the new rulers of Syria, off the proscribed list of terrorist organisations.
Similar has been the resolve of its Western allies with the European Union whooping up and down in its bid to open a mission in Syria.
The foreign ministers of France and Germany appeared almost together in Damascus to cosy up to Julani.
In other words, Julani is that Prince Charming to the West who not long ago was seen an Osama bin Laden reborn.
How does it appear to those who are for the redemption of Palestinians?
The Shiite Crescent of Iran, Iraq, Gaza, Lebanon and Yemen which is engaged in heroic Axis of Resistance against Israel?
The vanguards of multipolar world like Russia and China who would like the influence of the United States to diminish and not surge in this critical region?
How deflating it is to the rest of the world who stay as one behind Palestine in the United Nations?
To the Arab masses and most of humanity who grieve the genocide in Gaza and those tens of thousands who lead protest marches in European capitals?
Julani also doesn’t say a word in criticism of Israel who destroyed the entire military assets of Syria and continues to occupy a big southern chunk.
Isn’t it a giveaway that he was nothing but a hidden hand of West and Israel and that Turkey proved to be their facilitator with its funds and weapons to HTS?
In other words has Syria only strengthened the hands of the United States and Israel and the West and not weakened it in the Middle East?
And that Turkey has been that double-tongued viper who mouths all the right words for Palestinians but has actually worked against it?
Not Quite.
If HTS was a joint Israeli-US-Turkey project, why the Kurdish SDF, so dear to Israel and the US, is facing hell from Erdogan?
If HTS indeed was the creation of these three, why Israel lost no time in destroying the entire military assets of Syria as soon as Julani took control?
Won’t the Israeli occupation of southern Syria weaken and not strengthen Julani’s hands over HTS and other militias?
Won’t he lose legitimacy in the eyes of the Syrian masses?
That’s why what is reported on geopolitics in media is quite the opposite on most occasions.
It’s learnt that Julani told his Western visitors if Israel doesn’t back off, the moderate elements he is trying to promote would turn extremists — and Iran would return to Syria!
Because then the HTS won’t have any option but to look for support from Shiites: Iranians, Iraqis and Lebanese militias.
And that means there is no guarantee that the Golan Heights which Israel has occupied won’t face attacks from the rebels.
Julani is further reported to have said that it is Israel’s aggression which has brought Palestinians and Lebanese closer to Iran. And that same would happen in Syria!
That destroying military assets won’t hurt the HTS: They are rebels and guerrilla fighters and don’t need the state army or its apparatus.
The part-threat, part-promise tone of Julani was also a shout-out to the US president-elect Donald Trump to be favourably inclined. He has reportedly told the visitors from the West that the oppressed and the oppressor (implying Bashar al Assad) can’t be treated same and the Sanctions on Syria must be lifted.
If the US sanctions are lifted, it would not only provide legitimacy to HTS in the eyes of its own people but also provide a thrust to the rebuilding programme Julani has in his mind for Syria.
The truth is Israel would’ve preferred Bashar al Assad any day than the rebels who are in control of Syria now.
Assad was never a threat to Israel or its occupation of Golan Heights: Those borders were secure under Assad.
Israel’s big plan was to have Syria’s northeast remain in control of Kurds; the Druze in south Syria under its own influence and Assad bought over with the help of Emirati funds and weapons.
In essence, to essentially split Syria into three parts, all under the influence of Israel, a massive step towards its Greater Israel project.
This would’ve also limited Turkey’s influence in Syria to Idlib and nearby northeast only.
But now Turkey has thrown a spanner in this project.
Turkey is not only subduing Kurds but if Israel stays put in Syria, a clash between the two is on cards.
So far it’s Shiite Crescent which was Israel’s bane. Now under Turkey, a Sunni Rising would make life hell for Tel Aviv.
Not just Israel but a Sunni Uprising could also wash away the largely Sunni monarchies in Gulf.
Meanwhile Hezbollah have gotten in touch with the HTS.
And Iraq, the land bridge between Iran and Syria, has recently conferred with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Hezbollah at Jabal Qandeel near the Iranian border.
In case Syria and its new rulers don’t go to plan, and Israel and Turkey have a rapprochement, Iraq would be the launching pad for Iran: After all, Hashd ash-Shaabi in Iraq is a major component of Axis of Resistance.
So to recap and cut through the misinformation: (a) HTS remains a Turkey project and Israel and the West are presently clutching at straws; (b) that Julani meeting with Western leaders is primarily to ask Israel to back off lest Jihadis get out of his control and be a threat to Tel Aviv’s borders including in Golan Heights; © that the president-elect Donald Trump rather lift the US sanctions on Syria; (d) that in case these two scenarios are not met, Julani threatens to be in Shiite or Iran’s camp!
In my opinion, the HTS spells trouble and is hardly harbinger of good news to Israel.
