Reasons ABC’s James Carleton should not be celebrating the ‘liberation’ of Syria
Jan 23, 2025
When ABC journalist James Carleton discussed the overthrow of the Assad government on a Radio National ‘God Forbid’ program (‘Rebel fighters have overthrown the Assad regime in Syria, what does that mean for its people?’ 13/12/24), he warmly congratulated one of the program’s guests, Alia Malek, who was celebrating the ‘liberation’ of Syria.
Malek presented herself as a Syrian Christian American. Nevertheless, she enthusiastically welcomed the overthrow of Syria’s secular government by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a radical Islamist group still designated terrorist by the Australian government and still feared by many Syrian Christians.
A few weeks later, on 7 January 2025, American Judge Andrew Napolitano interviewed Kevork Almassian, a Syrian Christian refugee in Germany.
Almassian’s response to the collapse of Syria’s secular state and HTS’s victory contrasts sharply with Malek’s.
Below is an abridgement of the judge’s interview with Almassian.
Who or what is principally responsible for the fall of the Assad government?
There are multiple factors behind the fall of the Assad government.
To begin with, the funnelling of tens of billions of dollars worth of weapons and ammunition into the Syrian market, most of which went into the hands of very radical groups that were motivated to fight against the government because they saw the government as a secular, infidel regime.
The second factor was the interference in Syria of regional and international intelligence agencies that were intent on destabilising the country to facilitate regime change.
Then there were the economic sanctions. The sanctions were so draconian that if the United States detected that Syria had bought any technological equipment (including medical equipment) from a company in a third country, they would sanction that company.
When you sanction a country so severely, then you will see the rise of parallel economies. And who is going to be in charge of the parallel economies? The warlords, cronies, and people who have an invested interest in keeping the country’s economy dysfunctional.
All of these things led to the demoralising of the Syrian people.
What led the American State Department to put a $10 million bounty on Julani’s head and to designate his group as a terrorist organisation?
Actually, the State Department had been following Al-Julani for a long time. When he was in Iraq, he was responsible for sending car bombs into civilian neighbourhoods. And he formed the Al Qaeda offshoot in Syria. So everybody in the intelligence community knew who Al Julani was. So they put him on the terrorist list, but at the same time they sent weapons to what is called the Free Syrian Army, which is, let’s say, a less radical militant group. But they were fighting shoulder to shoulder with Julani’s Al Qaeda offshoot. So once you give all these weapons to the Free Syrian Army, the Free Syrian Army either sold these weapons to the Al-Nusra Front (Julani’s Al Qaeda offshoot in Syria), or Al-Nusra seized the weapons.
So when the regime change war was over in 2017, in the military sense, Trump said, “Why are we wasting $1 billion arming these jihadists in Syria? If we impose tighter sanctions on the country, we can devastate the economy and demoralise the people and so carry out regime change with a minimum budget.”
And this was successful at the end of the day. So after that they started to rebrand Al-Julani, and put him in a suit and tie.
However, Al-Julani has appointed a minister of justice a man who oversaw the public executions of at least two women for ‘adultery’ when he was a judge in Idlib, under Julani’s rule.
So Syria has gone from bad to worse?
Definitely. In 2010, just one year before the war, Syria was considered one of the safest countries in the region. It had over 8.5 million tourists a year and it had a functioning economy. There were limitations on political freedoms, but I would argue that without stability, you cannot establish a democratic system in any country.
Syria’s enemies wanted Assad to be gone for geopolitical reasons, not because of his human rights’ record; Julani’s human rights’ record is way worse.
What prompted then Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to issue the waiver to allow American diplomats and intelligence personnel to provide aid to HTS, even though HTS was a terrorist organisation and Julani had a bounty on his head?
Julani’s group was the most powerful military wing in Syria, capable of challenging the Assad government. It wasn’t a situation where you could pick and choose among different groups and say, “No, I don’t want to support HTS, I want to support other groups”.
The vast majority of the militants who joined the anti Assad camp were radical Islamists and they wanted to establish an Islamic state.
Saudi Arabia and Qatar gave lots of support to radical imams. One famous imam in Qatar, Sheikh Al Qaradawi, issued a fatwa on Qatar’s Al Jazeera TV saying that it was permissible to kill anyone who worked for the Syrian government, whether they were a civilian or a soldier. Tens of thousands of people perished because of this fatwa.
Why would Mike Pompeo or before him Hillary Clinton or now Anthony Blinken support this type of insurgency in Syria? To break the axis of resistance. This is what is called the axis between Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Palestine. They wanted to break Syria as the strategic depth of the axis of resistance. This is one.
Also, they wanted to extend the gas pipelines from Qatar to Turkey, and then Turkey would distribute this gas to Europe.
What is your take on this ‘new’ Julani? Is he believable? Is he a tool of the West or is he duping the West?
I think HTS is mostly a construct of the Turkish intelligence. However, I would also argue that because Turkey is a NATO country, the Americans weren’t clueless. The US has a big military base in Incirlik (Turkey) and they were overseeing the influx of weapons and aid to Julani.
The former special envoy of the US to Syria, James Jeffrey, famously said Julani’s group has been an asset for the US strategy in Syria. This is what realpolitik is about: the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
But now I think the Americans will exert some pressure on Julani because they want him to stay in line and not to go rogue completely, especially on the neighbouring countries, because HTS is made up of tens of different armed groups. And there are so many rogue elements in HTS committing ethnic cleansing against the minorities and persecuting women.
So the Americans will exert pressure on Julani in two aspects. One, they want him to stay passive with Israel and in the next few years to normalise ties with Israel. Secondly, they want him to allow Qatar and Turkey to have their strategic interests met.
What about Al Julani’s political future?
Julani said that he’s not going to hold elections for the next four years. He said that they need three years to redraft the constitution for Syria, although he changed the curriculum in a matter of three days in the country.
You mean the school curriculum?
Yes. For example, he removed the theory of evolution from the science textbooks. And he’s changing, the concept of ‘martyrdom’, from someone who dies for the sake of his country to someone who dies for the sake of God.
Also in the textbooks now, Jews and Christians are presented as people whom God is angry at.
Is it safe for Christians in Syria?
No, not at all. I’m reading daily reports from Syria, especially in Homs and in Latakia, about killings against Christians and against the Alawites, especially against the Alawites. I’ve seen countless videos of summary executions, humiliations. They are capturing men in mass in some towns. They’re either executing them or telling them to bark like a dog or they will be killed.
We’ve seen lots of robberies and because the Christians are trying to defend themselves, they’re getting killed in the process. One Christian was decapitated last week in the valley of the Christians in Homs.
So if somebody comes and says that HTS has reformed itself, yes, some have started wearing suits and ties.