Mick Hartley

A JC report on an interesting development in Syria:

Syria’s new government has arrested two senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) figures, the terror group’s military wing has announced.

The Al Quds Brigade confirmed that Khaled Khaled, the head of the group’s operations in Syria, and the chief of its organisational committee, Yasser al-Zafari, have been detained in the country for the past five days.

This may sound like good news – cracking down on the jihadis – but it's more a sign of the realignment of Syria from Iran to Turkey: that is, from Shia to Sunni.

Under President Bashar Al-Assad, Syria had adopted a more supportive approach to Palestinian Islamic Jihad due to its alliance with Iran, which funds the likes of the PIJ, Hamas and Hezbollah.

The Assad regime maintained close relations with Tehran and frequently allowed the Islamic Republic to transfer weapons to its proxies through Syria.

However, the fall of Assad in December already looks to be reshaping the region, with Damascus increasingly talking a firmer line under interim president Ahmed Al-Sharaa.

Al-Sharaa, a former member of Al-Qaeda, has distanced his country from Iran, calling its proxies “a strategic threat to the region” in interviews….

While Al-Sharaa claims to have left his jihadist affiliations in the past, Syria’s apparent direction of diplomatic travel away from Iran and towards Turkey could inform his approach to proxy groups like PIJ.

He has also cut off diplomatic ties with Tehran, reportedly in order to secure the lifting of international sanctions and ensure stability following more than a decade of civil war under Assad.

However, Syria’s enmity towards Israel looks set to continue, with the Al-Sharaa government reportedly allowing Hamas to build up a strong base in the country. Jerusalem has also launched a number of airstrikes in Syria, with the IDF saying that the operations were intended to destroy military infrastructure which it feared could be used to target Israel in future.

Professor Ed Husain, a leading Middle East analyst, recently claimed that Al-Sharaa’s new ruling party, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, is closely aligned with Qatar, which Israel has repeatedly accused of funding Hamas.

In an interview in February, Husain called the new regime in Damascus a “Qatari project”, adding: “Will his country be a literal… Islamist state, or will it be a moderate Arab country following the route of the UAE and others?

"I don’t think we should trust what’s going on in Damascus.”

Different alliances in Syria, with different masters, but still the same hatred of Israel.