Jabhat al-Nusrah Media Official: "A comment on David Ignatius’s article in the Washington Post"
Below I’ve translated the response from Abu Ammar al-Shami, head of Jabhat al-Nusrah’s media office, to David Ignatius’s July 19 Washington Post article. Abu Ammar’s rebuttal of Ignatius is a demonstration of the political trap the Syrian al-Qaeda affiliate has set for the United States and its allies.
Ignatius’s article contends, based on U.S. official sources, that Jabhat al-Nusrah seems to be plotting external operations against Europe and the United States and that is operatives have tried to infiltrate Syrian refugee communities in Europe. Ignatius’s report comes as the United States seems to have struck a tentative agreement with Russia on expanded military and intelligence coordination with Russia against both Nusrah and the self-proclaimed Islamic State. (Ignatius’s article also says, based on an upcoming Institute for the Study of War forecast, that Nusrah will merge with Ahrar al-Sham later this year, which I think is unlikely.)
Jabhat al-Nusrah has repeatedly denied that it intends to conduct attacks abroad, a denial that Abu Ammar repeats in the tweets I’ve translated below. Nusrah leader Abu Muhammad al-Jolani stressed in an interview last year that – as per instructions from al-Qaeda leader Aymen al-Zawahiri himself – Nusrah’s mission is to topple the Assad regime and institute Islamic rule in Syria, not to endanger the Syrian jihad by using Syria as a launching pad for attacks on the West.
Abu Ammar dismisses the U.S. government suspicions relayed by Ignatius as just another false pretext for war, a prelude to a military campaign against Jabhat al-Nusrah that will strengthen the Syria regime of Bashar al-Assad and pave the way for a U.S.-sponsored political resolution in the regime’s favor.
But when it comes to Jabhat al-Nusrah’s ambitions beyond Syria – and here’s the thing – who knows. Aside from Nusrah insiders and maybe some regional and international policymakers being fed information of variable reliability by secret squirrels, I don’t know if anyone has confident or reliable insight into what Nusrah is planning.
In the same interview in which he denied plotting to strike the West, Jolani said that if American bombing continued against Jabhat al-Nusrah, then Nusrah’s “options are open.” “If this situation [i.e., U.S. bombing] continues as is,” Jolani said, “I think there will be ramifications that won’t be in favor of the West and America.”
So Jabhat al-Nusrah can, hypothetically, flip that switch. And if it has been sending members abroad, it may be doing the advance work to ensure it has operatives in place and that its options are, indeed, open.
But what Jabhat al-Nusrah has also done is to make itself so central to Syria’s insurgency, particularly in the Syrian north, that any stepped-up campaign of U.S. bombing on Nusrah will inevitably weaken and endanger the broader armed opposition to the Assad regime. And absent a high-profile attack on the West and a claim of responsibility on Nusrah letterhead – not suspicions of attack planning or nebulous warnings – expanded targeting of Nusrah will be read by many in the Syrian opposition as an intervention on behalf of the Assad regime.
So Jabhat al-Nusrah gets to have it both ways. It can – maybe, allegedly – prepare for external operation contingencies. And at the same time, it can claim innocence and wrap itself in a broader Syrian opposition constituency that the United States and its allies are reluctant to alienate.
As for Syria’s other rebels, Nusrah asks them for their aid and brotherly solidarity. But, left unspoken, there is a reverse edge to Nusrah’s appeals for aid: As Nusrah has made clear, it reserves the right to dismantle any faction it judges to be a Crusader stooge or an enemy of the Islamic project in Syria.
As the United States potentially gears up for an expanded campaign on Jabhat al-Nusrah, it seems Nusrah has lashed itself to Syria’s rebels – and their fate is now shared, like it or not.
Translation follows:
A comment on David Ignatius’s article in the Washington Post:
No one is fooled anymore by the motions of American propaganda in the leadup to every war and act of destruction. It invents flimsy reasons and false claims to condition public opinion against [its enemy].
To target Jabhat al-Nusrah is to target the Syrian revolution on behalf of Assad, to weaken the strength of the mujahideen, and to tilt the scales in favor of these Rafidhi [derog., Shi’ite] militias on a number of fronts.
Jabhat al-Nusrah has made clear before that its project is to aid (nusrah) the oppressed in Syria and make them the priority in its staged strategy to bring down the Nuseiri (derog., Alawite) regime and its allies.
In Syria today, we are in urgent need of those who will support us and come to join the fight. [We don’t need] to send men across the ocean to fight an enemy that is already fighting us today, in person and with its tools.
We in Jabhat al-Nusrah stress that, in the interest of keeping the Syrian jihad ongoing and strong, all other desirable interests, including targeting the West and America, fall away and disappear.
And the other mujahid factions need to recognize that the elimination of Jabhat al-Nusrah today and permitting this Russian-American agreement to proceed without a position from you – for God, and then for history…
… Amounts to the abandonment of your brothers and the weakening of your own strength. Afterwards, America will be satisfied with nothing less than your submission to a political solution tilted towards Assad and his allies.
We’ve only thought the best of you, so aid your brothers and defend them through your words, through announcing the truth and through deflecting on their behalf. For God is the best guardian, and He is the most merciful of the merciful.
تعليقا على مقال الواشنطن بوست للكاتب ديفيد أغناشيوس:
(1)— أبو عمّار الشّامي (@Ammari011) July 21, 2016
لم تعد تنطلي على أحد مسارات الدعايةالإعلامية الأمريكية قبيل كل حرب أو دمار
فتخلق لذلك أسباب واهية ودعاوى كاذبة بغية تهيئة الرأي العام ضده
2— أبو عمّار الشّامي (@Ammari011) July 21, 2016
وإن استهداف #جبهة_النصرة استهداف للثورة السورية لصالح الأسد، وإضعاف لقوة المجاهدين، وميل لكفة الميليشيات الرافضية في العديد من الجبهات
3— أبو عمّار الشّامي (@Ammari011) July 21, 2016
وقد بينت #جبهة_النصرة من قبل أن مشروعها هو نصرة المستضعفين في الشام وجعلهم أولويةفي استراتيجتها المرحلية حتى إسقاط النظام النصيري وحلفائه
4— أبو عمّار الشّامي (@Ammari011) July 21, 2016
وإننا في #الشام اليوم في حاجة ماسة لمن ينصرنا وينفر إلينا لا أن نرسل الشباب لما وراء البحار ليقاتلوا عدوا يقاتلنا اليوم بنفسه وبأدواته
5— أبو عمّار الشّامي (@Ammari011) July 21, 2016
ونؤكد في #جبهة_النصرة أن أمام مصلحة الحفاظ على الجهاد الشامي قائما قويا تنزوي وتغيب كافة المصالح المرجوحة الأخرى من استهداف الغرب وأمريكا
6— أبو عمّار الشّامي (@Ammari011) July 21, 2016
وعلى الفصائل المجاهدة إدراك أن في القضاء على #جبهة_النصرة اليوم والسماح للاتفاق الروسي الامريكي بالمرور دون موقف منكم لله ثم للتاريخ…
7— أبو عمّار الشّامي (@Ammari011) July 21, 2016
لهو الخذلان لإخوانكم وإضعاف لقوتكم، ولن ترضى أمريكا بعدها منكم سوى الإذعان لحل سياسي يرجح في كفة الأسد وحلفائه.
8— أبو عمّار الشّامي (@Ammari011) July 21, 2016
وما ظننا بكم إلا خيرا، فأعينوا إخوانكم وادفعوا عنهم باللسان والبيان والتخذيل، فالله خير حافظا وهو أرحم الراحمين
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انتهى— أبو عمّار الشّامي (@Ammari011) July 21, 2016