Damascus- Israeli scholar of Arab culture and ex-military intelligence Lieutenant Mordechai Kedar stated he is in contact with Syrian armed opposition factions and that they are ready for a peace deal with Israel.
Speaking with Israel’s Channel 2, he stated, “I am in constant contact with the leaders of the Syrian opposition factions, and the impression they have is that they do not consider Israel an enemy.”
On Wednesday, 27 November, extremists from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a UN-designated terror group and former Al-Qaeda affiliate, launched an attack on the Aleppo countryside from its stronghold in Idlib Governorate. Three days later, they successfully captured large segments of Aleppo City.
“They are ready for a peace agreement with Israel, only if they get to control Syria and Lebanon. Leaders of Syrian opposition factions have conveyed to Tel Aviv that they are planning to open an Israeli embassy in Damascus and Beirut,” Kedar reported.
“Today, we are with the Syrian revolutionaries, but tomorrow, I don’t know. The rebels in Syria will get rid of the Iranian presence and Hezbollah, so they must be supported. If they are good with us, we will support them, and if not, we will not support them,” he added.
Foreign-backed Syrian opposition leaders made similar offers to Israel during the US-led covert war to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his government starting in 2011.
In April 2014, a senior Syrian opposition activist appealed for collaboration with Israel to topple the Syrian government, claiming that “the revolution created a historic opportunity for peace between the nations.”
Kamal al-Labwani, a physician and former decade-long political prisoner, told Israeli media that he believed “we [the opposition] have shared interests with Israel.”
“Iran, Hezbollah, and Al-Qaeda are the joint enemies of Israel and the Syrian people. We must collaborate against them,” the influential activist said.
However, Israel gave direct support to the Syrian Al-Qaeda affiliate, the Nusra Front, led by Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, a former leader in the Islamic State in Iraq.
The Nusra Front later changed its name to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which is the extremist group currently attacking Aleppo.
In 2015, the Wall Street Journal reported that Israel was treating Al-Qaeda fighters from the Nusra Front who were wounded fighting the Syrian army.
In 2019, outgoing Israeli Army Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot acknowledged for the first time that Israel had indeed provided weaponry to Syrian opposition armed groups such as the Nusra Front and the Free Syrian Army (FSA).
Eight days before last week’s HTS offensive on Aleppo, Yedioth Ahronoth revealed that Israel’s Shin Bet (internal intelligence) Chief Ronen Bar recently made a clandestine visit to Turkiye, meeting with Ibrahim Kalin, head of Turkish intelligence agency Millî İstihbarat Teşkilatı (MIT).
AFP reported that HTS militants are taking direct orders from Turkish intelligence.
“Opposition sources in touch with Turkish intelligence said Turkiye had given a green light to the offensive,” the AFP correspondent in HTS-held Idlib Governorate stated.
“The jihadists and their Turkiye-backed allies took orders from a joint operations command,” the correspondent added.
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