SHOCK Confession Of New Syrian Leader Triggers Global Alarm!

Right, so a shift has come in the democracy narratives of the new Syrian administration of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, HTS and the only conclusion you can draw from it really compared to the initial speeches and proclamations they’d made in the immediate aftermath of the fall of Assad that now they’ve got their feet under the table and become used to their new surroundings, they’ve decided they quite like it there.
You see when Abu Muhammad Al-Jolani, now preferring to go by his birthname of Ahmed Al-Sharaa blew into Damascus and took over, he was saying there would be elections coming in March of the New Year, that a quick democratisation of Syria would now come after more than 50 years of the Assad family ruling, but now he’s singing from a different hymn sheet. Now he’s saying he thinks it’ll be 4 years before there are any elections and combined with an increased level of persecution of ethnic minorities including, notably amongst Christian populations, I fancy many a Syrian might now be wondering if they are actually better or worse off now than they were under Assad.
Right, so all of a sudden the expected election in Syria due to come in a few months we were being told by the new HTS leadership are now not coming, well who’s surprised at a bunch of Israel backed Al-Qaeda and ISIS leftovers not keeping their word eh? But this is the news that dropped yesterday coming from the new de facto and very much unelected leader of Syria, Ahmed Al-Sharaa, better known as the terrorist Al-Jolani, once upon a time a man with a $10m bounty on his head now lifted as the US have decided to do politics with this head chopper instead now that he’s wearing a suit.
All of this came out in an interview Al-Sharaa did with the Saudi news outlet Al-Arabiya, saying the constitution he was creating with Turkish involvement would likely take 3 years to complete, that free and fair elections, with a proper census of the population of Syria would take 4 years he thinks and the so question left on everyone’s lips is why does he think all of this will take so long? Surely there are records of such things already after all?
Well for one, Al-Sharaa now has power and likely doesn’t want to let it go. A few months after forcibly seizing control of the country, which will have made a lot of Syrians nervous, isn’t enough time to win them over and bring them around to supporting his political organisation. It gives Al-Sharaa time to consolidate power, and exert the influence of his particular brand of Conservative Islam. HTS’s base was in the Idlib area of Syria, it is a Religious Conservative area of Syria, that they will want to spread now they control the country, following a strict form of Sunni Islam called Salafism which is closely aligned to the Wahabism doctrine practiced in Saudi Arabia, so inherently, that doesn’t allow for freedom of worship or expression, that is a tightening up of such freedoms instead. It'll take time to convince some people of this change on one hand and time to deal with others who won’t accept that at all, but I’ll come back to that point in a moment.
With close alignment in terms of religion, it’s probably no surprise that Al-Sharaa sees Saudi Arabia as having significant influence on the future of Syria, very much a do as you’re told or lose your head impression as that gives, but equally the Saudis have good relations with the West based on oil, Syria would like that too, the US and Kurdish factions in the north control their oilfields anyway and of course they still want to be besties with Israel too despite their continued invasion of Syrian territory, another point HTS needs to address meaningfully if they are going to win people over, though there’s scant sign of that happening yet.
Another issue that HTS need to resolve is that of the warring between Turkey and Syrian Kurds in the north of Syria, because on one hand Turkey is involved in drawing up this new constitution for Syria, now a 3 year project, but equally, Al Sharaa wants the Kurds to be integrated into his future vision for Syria and one reason he’s saying that is the fact they are US backed. He wants to be on both sides of that conflict, good terms with Turkey and the US, he wants the US to lift sanctions on Syria so this is a problem that needs to be resolved. Turkey are not currently invading Syria themselves though have been lending air support to their proxies who are fighting the Kurds, the Syrian National Army, not the same as the Pro Assad Syria Army, the word National is key, though confusion is natural, a bunch of disparate militias and mercenaries basically. I think it’s a case of which is more important to Turkey, having a say in the future of Syria or fighting the Kurds, who they have an historic beef with, that I detailed in another recent video and you figure even Erdogan would see the logic of sticking by HTS here and leaving the Kurds to them. Al-Sharaa has said he wants the Kurds to become an integral part of Syrian society, he has stated clearly that he doesn’t want any division in the country, but unfortunately the deeds of his terrorist gang passing themselves off as legitimate government is saying the total opposite.
On one hand there is a significant number of Assad loyalists still fighting HTS and in recent days some 300 arrests have been made, though no high ranking outstanding pro Assad rebels as I suppose they now are, have been captured. Those detained include interpreters, former fighters, soldiers and lower ranking officers. It’s not known how many of these may still be active, but clearly their ongoing attacks give an impression of anything but a stable new administration.
Undermining the wish for there to be no division schtick further is has been a report from the Iraqi Christian Foundation, a human rights and political rights organisation which lobbies for protection of Christians in Iraq and across the Middle East and who provide humanitarian aid to Christians in Iraq and Syria who have fled genocide. Their report detailed an operation by HTS goons, who had moved in on the Christian town of Maaloula and ordered everyone out, an act of ethnic cleansing, a war crime. It isn’t the first time HTS have attacked Maaloula either as prominent Middle East journalist Richard Medhurst spelt out in a tweet, saying:
‘I've been to Maaloula more times than I can count. It is very special as it's one of the only places on earth where people still speak Aramaic (the language that Jesus spoke). Al Sharaa (Jolani) and his al Nusra terrorists attacked it in 2013, destroyed the statue of the Virgin Mary & kidnapped the nuns.’
Medhurst there had actually quote tweeted a comment made by the Iraqi Christian Foundation themselves which said:
‘Syrian Christians in the ancient Christian town of Maaloula, Syria, are being threatened to leave the town by the AlQaeda/ISIS terrorists that have taken over Syria. An ethnic cleansing is happening in this ancient Christian town where Aramaic is still spoken. Pray for the Christians of Syria.’
The World Council of Arameans has also joined with the concerns of the Iraqi Christian Foundation over matters in Maaloula too. Arameans or Syriacs are the oldest indigenous race of people in Syria, Aramaic speakers and as such Maaloula is essentially one of theirs and in the face of 80% of Christians having fled Maaloula, they’ve put out an article on their website on the 26th December detailing the crisis faced there, which has now been ongoing for two weeks. An excerpt reads:
‘Over the past week, Islamists have intensified efforts to seize Christian-owned farmland and homes, pushing the last Arameans in Maaloula to the brink. Last night, at 2 a.m., a Christian farmer defending his property faced a life-or-death situation when armed attackers arrived. After being fired upon, he returned fire in self-defense, resulting in the death of one attacker. Despite his actions being backed by clear surveillance footage handed over to Damascus police, extremists are now demanding his surrender for retaliation and openly calling for the ethnic cleansing of Maaloula’s remaining Aramean Christian population.
Curiously, Maaloula has been cut off from the outside world, with no internet or phone connection for hours, leaving its residents isolated and vulnerable. Meanwhile, social media channels are flooded with calls for the expulsion of Christians, intensifying the fear among the remaining population. All its Aramean residents, especially women, children, and the elderly, are deeply afraid to surrender their arms, fearing they will be slaughtered if they do so.’
This isn’t respect for all religions, this isn’t peaceful transition, this is continuation of terrorism, where HTS are more interested in attacking Christians and other minorities than stopping Israel from still bombing Damascus and seizing more territory. A leadership like that isn’t going to unify anything, but now saying they’re here to stay like it or lump it for the next four years to people who had no say in their takeover to begin with? Yeah, that’s going to go down swimmingly going forwards isn’t it?
If HTS aren’t going to do or say anything about Israel, the same cannot be said for the Houthis or Hamas now, as they’ve commenced rocket attacks on Israel with Benjamin Netanyahu having collapsed ceasefire talks yet again that he has never been an honest broker in. Israel thought Hamas had no rocket capabilities though, but not only have they proven otherwise, but where they’ve been able to fire them from has shaken Israel to its core. Get all the details of that story in this video recommendation here as your suggested next watch. Please do also hit like, share and subscribe to the channel if you haven’t done so already, it all helps support the channel and is very much appreciated and I hope you keep coming back for more daily content, to which end I hope I will catch you on the next vid. Cheers folks