Delist Syrian rebels that ousted Bashar al-Assad as a terror group, NGO says

Australia and Western allies should stop listing the Syrian rebel group that toppled dictator Bashar al-Assad as a terrorist organisation, and become an ally of the new Syria, the head of one of the world’s leading NGOs advocating for Syrian democracy has said.

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham or HTS began as an affiliate of al-Qaeda and its founder Abu Mohammed al-Jolani fought with the group against the US in Iraq resulting in his capture and detention in the Abu Ghraib prison.

In 2016, Jolani rebranded the group and renamed it HTS. He claims to have renounced ties with al-Qaeda but the US has a $US10 million ($15m) bounty on his head.

Australia, the UK, the UN and others have all listed HTS as a terrorist organisation, banning all communications with the group.

But Mouaz Moustafa from the Washington-based Syrian Emergency Taskforce which documents Assad’s war crimes and advocates for a democratic Syria, told The Nightly it was time for the West to drop the listing and start working with HTS.

“That tie was severed a long time ago, even that older version no longer exists,” he said in an interview from the US by phone.

“HTS today has actually been the biggest enemy of al-Qaeda in addition to being the biggest enemy of ISIS alongside other rebel factions, that’s why al-Qaeda actually has zero foothold in Syria.

“So it’s a predated, irrelevant designation in terms of anything having to do with transnational terrorism.”

A senior Biden official said on a call attended by The Nightly on Sunday that the US was in talks with all groups in Syria, when asked if the US administration was communicating with HTS.

On Monday in Saudi Arabia, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said it was “far too early” to discuss removing the listing despite his Cabinet Secretary Pat McFadden conceding it was possible.

Asked on Tuesday if he was reconsidering the listing, Australia’s Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus told reporters: “We don’t discuss listing arrangements.”

“The Australian Government takes advice from security agencies about the listing of proscribed terror organisations and it’ll continue in that way,” he said.

Mr Moustafa said Australia could help Syria’s transition and insisted the country was not about to slide into civil war.

“Syria for Australia and Syria for many countries can be, I believe, a very important and valuable ally – the new Syria – after we got out of this yoke of tyranny,” he said.

“I’m not promising democracy tomorrow but true realistic hope for democracy now exists.

“Syria is closer to being the first-ever Arab democracy.”

He said rebel forces were allowing local authorities to govern cities they’d liberated and that unity was prevailing as a result.

“I’m hopeful for Syria’s future – look at Aleppo for example, Aleppo’s been liberated for a week, right, and zero reports of violations,” he said.

“This is great in this interim period until Syria can take steps into a constitution, getting the international community hopefully to stop worrying about terrorism and praise the defeat of terrorism in Syria and help Syria become the democracy it deserves to be.”

Charles Lister, Director of Syria and Countering Terrorism and Extremism programs at the Middle East Institute said that if the US really wanted Jolani’s head, the HTS leader would be dead by now.

“He’s spent years operating in the open, with no concern for his safety,” Lister said in a series of posts on X.

“US drones continued to operate, if his designation – and HTS’s – were still rock-solid, he’d be dead by now.

“It’s now acknowledged that HTS will require a seat at the table in determining Syria’s future.”

Assad should sit alongside Hitler and Milošević

Mr Moustafa said that his organisation was determined to hold Assad, who fled to Moscow and sought asylum from his former patron Russian President Vladimir Putin, accountable for his brutal oppression and murder of approximately half a million of his citizens and the displacement of around half his country.

“The man who created 14 million displaced persons, the most displaced people in the world, the man who sent millions of refugees to Europe, to regional states around Syria has now become a refugee himself,” he said.

“He ran away because he didn’t want to face justice for the genocidal massacres that he committed and in time, he will.

“Assad deserves to sit alongside (former Serbian leader Slobodan) Milošević and Hitler.

“Assad is one of the worst criminals of the 21st century, killed a million people, gassed his own people, displaced more than half of the country and stuck to literally his seat until the last moment and then ran away like a coward.

“This is a historic villain of biblical proportions.”