Gulf News

Al Nusra Front chief in Syria breaks ties with Al Qaida

Western powers unlikely to change their assessment of the group despite break

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The head of Al Nusra Front in Syria said his terror group was breaking ties with Al Qaida and changing its name, in remarks broadcast yesterday by Al Jazeera news channel.

Abu Mohammad Al Julani said Al Nusra would change its name to Jabhat Fateh Al Sham and expressed his gratitude to the “commanders of Al Qaida for having understood the need to break ties”.

Al Qaida told its Syrian branch that it could break organisati­onal ties with the global terror organisati­on to preserve its unity and continue its battle in Syria, in an audio statement released yesterday.

A break with Al Qaida could pave the way for greater support from Gulf states such as Qatar for the Al Nusra Front, the most powerful faction in Syria’s five-year conflict opposing both President Bashar Al Assad and Daesh.

It could also lead to closer ties between Al Nusra and other fighting factions in Syria.

“You can sacrifice without hesitation these organisati­onal and party ties if they conflict with your unity and working as one body,” Al Qaida leader Ayman Al Zawahiri said in an audio statement directed to the Nusra Front. The brotherhoo­d of Islam among us is stronger than any organisati­onal affiliatio­n ... Your unity and unificatio­n is more important to us than any organisati­onal link.”

Listed as a terrorist organisati­on by the US, Al Nusra Front was excluded from Syria’s February cessation of hostilitie­s truce and Russia and the US are also discussing closer coordinati­on to target the group.

Speaking before yesterday’s announceme­nt, Charles Lister, an expert with the Middle East Institute, said that while Syria’s opposition has always demanded Al Nusra leave Al Qaida, Western powers are unlikely to change their assessment of the group.

A split would complicate things for Washington, which is likely Nusra’s intention.

The US and Russia are trying to hammer out an agreement on a new military partnershi­p in Syria. One leaked US proposal would call for a sharing of intelligen­ce and targeting for strikes against Daesh and Al Nusra on the condition Russia commits to convince its ally Al Assad to ground Syria’s bombers and start a political transition process.

But that would be more difficult if Al Nusra becomes even closer to other rebels. Washington and its allies have long pressed mainstream opposition groups to “de-couple” from front lines where Al Nusra is present, with little success.

De facto move

“If Nusra Front was to sever its ties to Al Qaida, opposition groups will in no way ever consider such de-coupling,” said Lister. Consequent­ly, any future interventi­on against Nusra will be perceived by opposition Syrians as a de facto move in support of the Al Assad regime, he said.

Aymenn Jawad Al Tamimi, a research fellow at US think tank Middle East Forum, said a formal break with Al Qaida and the possible formation of a new coalition of fighters with Al Qaida’s blessing “arguably represents the worst outcome from the US perspectiv­e”.

He said it would make “targeting of terrorist figures much more difficult as they will be ever more deeply embedded in the wider insurgency”.

A larger coalition between Al Nusra Front and other groups “would then quickly and easily dismantle many of the USbacked groups among the Syrian rebels in the north”, he wrote.

Al Nusra Front was set up shortly after the uprising against Al Assad broke out in 2011. Originally supported by Daesh, which controls swathes of territory in Syria and Iraq, it split from the hardline group in 2013.

It has been sanctioned by the UN Security Council, although in many parts of Syria it frequently fights on the same side as mainstream groups favoured by Washington and its Arab allies.

Rebels fighting under the banner of the Free Syrian Army have denied direct coordinati­on with Al Nusra, which has also fought and crushed several Western-backed rebel groups.

After lying low in the early days of the February truce, Al Nusra has re-emerged on the battlefiel­d as diplomacy has unravelled, spearheadi­ng recent attacks on pro-government Iranian militias near Aleppo, Al Nusra commanders and other rebels say.

Proposals to distance Al Nusra from Al Qaida have been floated before. Last year, sources told Reuters that the group’s leaders considered cutting ties with Al Qaida to form a new entity backed by some Gulf Arab states seeking to topple Al Assad but which are also hostile to Daesh.

By quitting Al Qaida, Al Nusra Front loses the brand name that drew many of its fighters to its ranks. That could drive away members. Foreign fighters in particular could become disillusio­ned since many of them were drawn by the Al Qaida link and see their participat­ion in the Syria war in more universal terms of global jihad rather than as simply a campaign to oust Al Assad, said Sam Heller, a Beirutbase­d analyst who writes about the Syria war.

 ?? AP ?? Al Nusra Front militants marching towards the northern village of Al Ais in Syria’s Aleppo province.
AP Al Nusra Front militants marching towards the northern village of Al Ais in Syria’s Aleppo province.

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