{"id":72216,"date":"2016-04-18T12:00:27","date_gmt":"2016-04-18T11:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=72216"},"modified":"2016-04-17T14:52:36","modified_gmt":"2016-04-17T13:52:36","slug":"negotiating-syrias-future-with-terrorists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2016\/04\/negotiating-syrias-future-with-terrorists\/","title":{"rendered":"Negotiating Syria\u2019s Future with Terrorists?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Catherine<\/a>9 Apr 2016<\/em> \u2013<\/em>\u00a0Against all logic, and many would argue reason, Western powers have allowed for dangerous radical factions to hold a great many cards in the carving of Syria\u2019s future, arguing pluralism and an imperious need for fair political representation.<\/p>\n

But what happens when such parties, such democratic pawns, prove to be radicalism\u2019s most rapacious tools \u2013 the very expression of the terror Western powers and their allies have so longingly claimed to have ambitions to destroy?<\/p>\n

Wonder no more; Jaysh al-Islam, the darling that Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar have systematically propped up against Syrian President Bashar Assad, is here to answer those burning questions.<\/p>\n

Positioned as both a legitimate and relevant political faction, Jaysh al-Islam was sold as a democratic champion and a carrier of popular will by those powers which, from the outset of the Syrian war, have engineered the fall of Syria\u2019s institutions.<\/p>\n

\"Photo:<\/a>

Photo: WFP (file) | In a boost to international humanitarian efforts in Syria, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) on | On 10 April 2016 delivered aid by air for hungry people trapped in the besieged eastern city of Deir Ezzor, an area controlled by Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL\/Da\u2019esh).<\/p><\/div>\n

Behind Assad\u2019s presidency lies an office whose authority is anchored in Syria\u2019s constitution. Challenge its legitimacy, and you are in fact challenging Syria\u2019s very national sovereignty.<\/p>\n

Beyond the catchy headlines and talk of democratization, reforms and just retribution, Western powers and their regional allies are in fact debating Syria\u2019s right to self-govern; everything else has been political white noise.<\/p>\n

Talk of democracy and counter-terrorism has been played ad nauseam so that never-ending military interventionism could be sold as responsible politicking. Five years into the Syrian war, I would like to think that the world has woken up from its trance \u2013 especially since terror has had a nasty habit of spreading as exponentially as Western powers have opened up new fronts.<\/p>\n

What a mind-boggling phenomenon it is to see Terror\u2019s armies spread and gain before Western military might. How terribly confusing to see Western capitals make a case for regime change in Syria, when the real threat facing not just Syria, but the whole region has been Islamic extremism.<\/p>\n

\"Jaysh<\/a>

Jaysh al-Islam used chem weapons in Syria & has delegate at UN peace talks<\/p><\/div>\n

How conveniently pressing those calls for regime change are\u2026<\/p>\n

Can we stop already and look at Syria and recognize that Terror has been played as a tool of mass political destabilization, an asymmetrical weapon of war wielded against a government which refused to play ball with globalists?<\/p>\n

As always, control was mainly the agent provocateur, the catalyst which led the powers that be to devise Syria\u2019s fall \u2013 or I should say President Bashar Assad\u2019s early exit. Only, he was never meant to withstand such pressure.<\/p>\n

I very much doubt that the West could ever have imagined that his presidency would withstand the ravages of radicalism. Yet it did. It is actually because it did that Western powers\u2019 hands are now being revealed in the most unsophisticated way.<\/p>\n

After all, lies have very short legs \u2026 or so the saying goes.<\/p>\n

So, what is it about Jaysh al-Islam that makes the West and its Arab friends go weak at the knees? What is it indeed about these so-called \u201cmoderates\u201d which justified military expenditures worth billions of dollars?<\/p>\n

In June 2012, the US State Department reportedly<\/a>\u00a0allocated $15 million in \u201cnon-lethal aid\u201d for civilian opposition groups in Syria, alongside distribution of military equipment, including assault rifles, anti-tank rocket launchers and other ammunition.<\/p>\n

In April 2013, the United States confirmed it had set up a $70 million program in Jordan \u201cthat is training the kingdom\u2019s special forces to identify and secure chemical-weapons sites across Syria should the regime fall and the wrong rebels look like getting their hands on them,\u201d\u00a0as reported in The Economist<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That same month, the Obama administration<\/a>\u00a0also promised to double non-lethal aid to the Syrian opposition, bringing the total to $250 million.<\/p>\n

The word you want to pay attention is: \u201cchemical.\u201d Following Washington\u2019s own rationale, military efforts had to be exerted so that Terror would not acquire dangerous weapons of war: i.e: chemical weapons.<\/p>\n

As a responsible superpower, the US would not dream of enabling dangerous lunatics\u2026 only its enemies would ever resort to such tactics. Washington and its allies don\u2019t play by such rules; they stand above the fray.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s that name again: Jaysh al-Islam\u2026 the elephant in the room.<\/p>\n

\"Syrian<\/a>

Syrian Islamist group Jaysh al-Islam admits using banned weapons against Kurds in Aleppo<\/p><\/div>\n

Let\u2019s discuss the details, since the devil is in them. Among its many capabilities, and they have been many, Jaysh al-Islam recently admitted to using chemical weapons against the Kurds<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Allow me to state the obvious and offer a reminder that since the Kurds have recently been upgraded to Turkey\u2019s grand enemy of the state, such an attack is just too convenient not to scream genocidal calculation on Ankara\u2019s part.<\/p>\n

A news report carried by Sputnik read<\/a>\u00a0as follows: \u201cSyrian Islamist militant group Jaysh al-Islam has admitted to using \u2018forbidden\u2019 weapons in clashes with the People\u2019s Protection Units (YPG) in Aleppo\u2019s Kurdish-held Sheikh Maqsood district.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Iraq and Syria, American leadership \u2013 including our military power \u2013 is stopping ISIL\u2019s [Islamic State\/IS, formerly ISIS\/ISIL] advance. Instead of getting dragged into another ground war in the Middle East, we are leading a broad coalition, including Arab nations, to degrade and ultimately destroy this terrorist group,\u201d said US President Barack Obama on January 20, 2015, during his State of the Union address.<\/p>\n

Really now? Either he\u2019s lying, or his administration has proven criminally incompetent in choosing its friendships. Jaysh al-Islam did not exactly wish themselves powerful, did they.<\/p>\n

They were aided, trained, and empowered. Not least of all they were fronted as legitimate political actors, courtesy of Turkey, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia \u2013 the Middle East\u2019s new holy trinity. Back in December 2015, Jaysh al-Islam sent a delegation to Riyadh to attend the Syria peace talks.<\/p>\n

Although the group embodies the very definition of Terror, its leadership has been considered a worthy interlocutor by Western powers on account that it retains Riyadh\u2019s ear.<\/p>\n

If you are still confused as to who Jaysh al-Islam<\/a>\u00a0is, let me put it this way: its goals are aligned with that of Al-Nusra Front, Al-Qaeda, and IS.<\/p>\n

And yet, the radical militant group has been granted more political courtesy than Syrian President Bashar Assad was ever extended.<\/p>\n

What in the world of politics would possess the West to support the very entities which seek to destroy its way of life, and its sense of self? I would say utter lunacy, but that would be missing the point.<\/p>\n

What does power and control mean? The domination of a region whose riches and geostrategic worth are such that superpowers have played a game of Russian roulette over them?<\/p>\n

Can we now blame President Assad for refusing to sit at the peace table? Can we even speak of peace negotiations when the likes of Jaysh al-Islam are offered a seat? Who are we kidding here?<\/p>\n

Syrians are not playing of course; nor should they have to.<\/p>\n

____________________________________<\/p>\n

Catherine Shakdam is a political analyst, writer and commentator for the Middle East with a special focus on radical movements and Yemen. A regular pundit on <\/em>RT and other networks, her work has appeared in major publications: <\/em>MintPress, the <\/em>Foreign Policy Journal, Mehr News and many others. Director of programs at the Shafaqna Institute for Middle Eastern Studies, Catherine is also the co-founder of Veritas Consulting.\u00a0 She is the author of <\/em>Arabia\u2019s Rising \u2013 Under the Banner of the First Imam.<\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 human-wrongs-watch.net<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jaysh al-Islam used chem weapons in Syria & has delegate at UN peace talks. Beyond the catchy headlines and talk of democratization, reforms and just retribution, Western powers and their regional allies are in fact debating Syria\u2019s right to self-govern; everything else has been political white noise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[204],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-syria-in-context"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72216\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}