Charles Lister Profile picture
Feb 2, 2021 15 tweets 21 min read Read on X
Very, very interesting.

#HTS & its leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani have just finished hosting @frontlinepbs's @Martin28Smith in #Idlib for 3 days.

How times change -- quite a difference from 2014/15.
@frontlinepbs @Martin28Smith #pt: It's no secret that #HTS has been pushing hard behind-the-scenes for opportunities to improve its image abroad -- first in outreach to researchers/institutes & more recently giving top access to highly-regarded media outlets.

And fwiw, PBS is one of several.
@frontlinepbs @Martin28Smith #pt: That #HTS is pushing this shouldn't come as a surprise -- the ingredients were put in place as far back as 2015, when a prolonged internal debate regarding the right path for Jabhat al-Nusra began. Clerical "lobby groups" got involved & then #JFS was created; then #HTS.
@frontlinepbs @Martin28Smith #pt: #HTS hasn't moderated its foundational ideology, but it has pivoted entirely to a localized agenda in which governance measures at least as important as efforts in the military sphere.

The break with #AlQaeda is/was real, but the impetus was largely for self-preservation.
@frontlinepbs @Martin28Smith #pt: The vast majority of Syrians in the NW continue to distrust #HTS & he definitely doesn't represent their revolution -- but the success of #Jolani's governance project in #Idlib is almost certainly the only hope left for preventing a full regime conquest -- a grim irony.
@frontlinepbs @Martin28Smith #pt: 3yrs ago, I was told #Jolani had begun using "Liberated Northern #Syria" to describe the NW & was also proposing this zone elect a "Prime Minister" -- anathema to jihadists.

Today, #HTS runs a semi-technocratic "Salvation Government" & conducts CT ops vs. #AlQaeda & #ISIS.
@frontlinepbs @Martin28Smith #pt: 2yrs ago, I learned of unofficial outreach efforts from #HTS to a number of Western governments & began to be asked by some whether it was "time" to engage in "exploratory dialogues." (I said no)

I now understand some engagement has occurred. This also should be a surprise.
@frontlinepbs @Martin28Smith #pt: When U.S. diplomats have spent months on end negotiating over a shared table with the #Taliban, #HTS gambled that it too could achieve a similar level of legitimacy.

The #Taliban model has been talked about in #Syria before -- years back by another group: Ahrar al-Sham.
@frontlinepbs @Martin28Smith #pt: In public & (mostly) closed settings, I began suggesting that #Nusra/#JFS/#HTS was heading in this direction in early-'16.

My point was to warn of the challenge this'd present - it'd undermine moderates, risk justifying a major assault & force us into an impossible dilemma.
@frontlinepbs @Martin28Smith #pt: I wrote and said repeatedly that thus evolving #Nusra represented the primary threat to #Syria's opposition for a reason -- because once it gains traction & achieves some level of local dominance, it'll prove immensely difficult to uproot.

That's definitely proven true.
@frontlinepbs @Martin28Smith #pt: Worse still, when jihadists "go local" & succeed in consolidating a dominant position, they create a dynamic in which any external CT campaign against them is almost certain to enhance their local credibility -- that's also proven true.

Hence today's effort to reform image.
@frontlinepbs @Martin28Smith #pt: Zoom out for a minute: with minimal hostilities, #Idlib is a dire humanitarian disaster. An outbreak of major fighting is hard to fathom.

If the international community wants to keep #Idlib stable, it's essentially impossible to envision how to do so w/o #HTS's cooperation.
@frontlinepbs @Martin28Smith #pt: And yet at the same time, #HTS remains a designated terrorist organization, albeit one that allows foreign (including U.S.) aid to be distributed throughout its territory; supports a modest COVID-19 response; & confronts both #AlQaeda & #ISIS.

It's an impossible quandary.
@frontlinepbs @Martin28Smith #pt: One last pt - it's hard to understate the enormous symbolic significance of this image in the jihadist world.

Until now, #HTS was condemned by #AlQaeda & #ISIS alike for its "nationalist" rhetoric & distancing from "true" jihad -- this picture makes that look insignificant. Image
@frontlinepbs @Martin28Smith Al Jazeera's @Ahmadmuaffaq says @frontlinepbs's documentary on #Idlib & #HTS is likely to be aired in May -- in a tweet/photo taken at #Hatay Airport sometime after @Martin28Smith's meeting with #Jolani near Bab al-Hawa.

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More from @Charles_Lister

Mar 9
The information space around #Syria has collapsed into a toxic pot of vitriol, wild misinformation and... some facts.

Large numbers of people are tragically dead, but the circumstances & context are far more complex than is being widely conveyed. A 🧵:
In the lead-up to Thursday night, pro-#Assad gunmen had launched 46 attacks on interim gov't forces in 6/14 of #Syria's governorates -- but what happened Thursday night was a whole other level.

3 days later, more than 400 gov't forces are confirmed as dead.
Almost all of those 400 gov't forces were locally-deployed -- many killed by summary execution, burned to death & buried alive.

In the 1st night of fighting, pro-#Assad gunmen also launched attacks on rival villages -- some Sunni, others Alawite.
Read 9 tweets
Mar 8
Suffice to say, the chance of #Syria being granted any sanctions relief by the #Trump admin is now effectively zero.

#Assad loyalists knew exactly what they wanted -- an extension of the long-standing "#Assad or we burn the country" motto.
#Assad fell in an #HTS-led military campaign that demonstrated extraordinary & unprecedented self-restraint -- and in the aftermath, calls for 'reconciliation' & recovery kept a lid on a long-standing boiling pot of anger & grudges.
After a decade+ of pro-#Assad sectarian massacres, 82,000 barrel bombs, starvation sieges, 340+ chemical weapons attacks, industrialized torture & 130k disappeared -- the simmering fury & thirst for revenge was restrained only by the prospect of a new start.
Read 5 tweets
Mar 5
A 🧵-- in the last 10 days, #Israel has:

- Launched ground incursions into x18 localities in SW #Syria, as deep as 12km;
- Conducted x3 airstrikes;
- Threatened a military intervention toward #Damascus;
- Demanded all of south #Syria be demilitarized.
#Israel says it distrusts #Syria's interim gov't & has sought to instrumentalize minorities to justify its interventions -- particularly the #Druze.

Yet the most powerful #Druze actors have publicly rejected #Israel's "interference" & "stoking division."
24hrs before #Israel began publicly linking the #Druze to its actions in #Syria, the "#Suwayda Military Council" began an online PR campaign -- which many took to be too much of a coincidence.

Their flag was also similar in style to the #SDF in NE #Syria. Image
Read 11 tweets
Mar 1
NEW -- #Israel is threatening military intervention in #Syria tonight amid rising tensions between interim gov't forces & #Druze militiamen in #Damascus' suburb of #Jaramana.

What's going on? A brief 🧵:
Last night, #Druze militiamen in #Jaramana outside #Damascus attacked a handful of interim gov't forces -- killing one, injuring another & temporarily taking him hostage.

An hour later, the militiamen attacked & ransacked a state police station nearby.
#Druze notables in #Jaramana intervened last night, securing the hostage release & promising the gov't General Security Service to handover the men responsible for the x2 attacks.

That didn't happen & tensions are rising tonight, amid occasional gunfire.
Read 7 tweets
Feb 15
NEW - #Syria’s interim gov’t GSS has captured senior #ISIS commander Abu al-Harith al-Iraqi in a targeted raid.

His capture is linked to US intel sharing with #Damascus. Abu al-Harith has been behind a string of high-profile #ISIS plots in #Syria. A 🧵:
When in #Damascus, I was told of 8 #ISIS plots that had been foiled by #Syria’s Interior Ministry GSS force since Jan 1, 2025 — all tied directly or indirectly to U.S. intel tip-offs.

There’s an ongoing [US-#HTS] exchange on #ISIS.
Abu al-Harith was the planner & facilitator of the #ISIS plot to massacre Shia Muslims in #Damascus’ Sayyida Zeinab foiled in January by #Syria’s GSS, per a US intel tip-off.

He also coordinated the April ‘24 assassination of Abu Mariya al-Qahtani.
Read 6 tweets
Feb 7
I just left #Syria after an extraordinary trip — one that until recently I never thought I’d make again. From #Aleppo, to #Idlib, #Latakia, #Tartus, #Salamiya, #Suwayda & #Damascus.

So many takeaways, but most of all: it's free & everyone is overjoyed. A 🧵: Image
In #SNA-held areas of northern #Aleppo, towns had emptied, as IDPs have steadily returned home since #Assad's fall on Dec 8.

Checkpoints remained, but #Damascus forces (formerly #HTS) had begun to arrive. Authorities were transitioning to central control. Image
As in #SNA areas, #Idlib showed signs of service provision, maintenance & civil order that was lacking in formerly #Assad-run areas. Cleaner streets, orderly road & traffic management, *much* more electricity & more advanced/resourced commercial activity.
Read 25 tweets

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