Israelis Skeptical Even After Trump’s Embrace of Syria’s ‘Attractive’ Interim Ruler, a Former Terrorist Leader

After President Trump pleaded with Syria’s “attractive” interim ruler, Ahmed al-Sharaa, to join the Abraham Accords, a senior Damascus official on Wednesday gave an unprecedented interview to an Israeli press outlet during which he called for peace. Many Israelis, though, are skeptical of what they see as a public relations campaign attempting to rehabilitate a man striving to shed his terrorist past. “Syria is uninterested in war, we want peace with everybody and seek a stable region,” a spokesman for the Damascus public diplomacy office, Ali al-Rifai, told the Arab affairs correspondent for Kann News, Roi Kays. Mr. Trump greeted Mr. Sharaa at Riyadh earlier Wednesday alongside Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman. President Erdogan of Turkey called in from Ankara via video.A day earlier Mr. Trump announced his decision to remove all American sanctions that have been imposed on Syria and its former president, Bashar Assad, for his role in supporting terrorism. His successor, Mr. Sharaa, earlier known as Abu Mohammed al Joulani, had been imprisoned at Abu Ghraib as a member of the Iraqi ISIS faction. Mr. Trump, on Air Force 1 Wednesday, described the new Syrian ruler as: “Young, attractive guy, tough guy.” “Does Trump even know who Joulani is?” the founder of the northern Israel-based Alma research center that specializes in Syria, Lebanon, and other Mideast analysis, Sarit Zehavi, asks the Sun. Like many Israelis, Ms. Zehavi uses Mr. Sharaa’s nom le guerre from his days as an ISIS fighter, and later as a commander of a Syrian Al Qaeda offshoot, rather than adopting, like he has, the name of his birth.As Syria’s new leader, Mr. Sharaa has shed his battle fatigues for suits and ties. He gained the trust of European leaders, as seen in a recent state visit to Paris, where President Macron warmly embraced him. New fans also include Sunni Arab leaders, notably the Saudi de-facto ruler, known as MbS, who has pleaded with Mr. Trump to remove the sanctions against Syria. Ms. Zehavi’s credulous response reflects a widely held Israeli suspicion of the new regime at Damascus. Representatives of that regime recently met with Israeli counterparts in an effort to prevent friction that could lead to major escalation of tensions. While at Paris, though, Mr. Sharaa denounced Israel’s incursions into Syria.Shortly after the Assad overthrow, Israeli jets bombed top Syrian arms caches, including chemical weapons, fearing they’d fall to the hands of jihadis. Israel also seized the Syrian side of the strategic Hermon mountain, and created a security buffer zone on the Syrian Golan Heights. Recently, Israelis also aided Druze communities attacked by jihadis. Mr. Sharaa’s level of control over such forces, who swear allegiance to him, is unclear.“Clearly, different groups are governing different parts of the country,” a United Nations spokesman, Farhan Haq, tells the Sun. Like the UN, though, Europeans, the Saudi crown prince, and others are expressing the hope that with outside help, the new Damascus regime can turn Syria around. Mr. Shara has a “strong past, very strong past — fighter,” Mr. Trump says. “He’s got a real shot at holding it together.”In return for the sanctions removal, Mr. Trump asked Mr. Sharaa on Wednesday to “sign onto the Abraham Accords; tell all terrorists to leave Syria; deport Palestinian terrorists; help the United States to prevent the resurgence of ISIS; and assume responsibility for ISIS detention centers in northeast Syria,” according to a White House readout.That last item seems to pave the way for the withdrawal of all American troops from Syria. In the last decade’s war against ISIS and other jihadists, including those led by Joulani, American troops fought alongside Kurdish fighters. Americans and Kurds are currently keeping the ISIS detention centers. In January Mr. Sharaa was helped by Turkey in overthrowing the previous Damascus regime. The coup followed Israel’s degradation of Mr. Assad’s top backers, the Islamic Republic of Iran and its proxy Hezbollah. Ankara has long seen the Kurds’ de facto autonomy in northeastern Syria as a threat. As of now, Mr. Sharaa’s military is not present in vast regions of Syria, including the Kurdish areas, the Latakia stronghold of Mr. Assad’s Alawite clan, and Druze villages near Israel’s borders. Attacks on minorities by allies of the Damascus regime, even if not directly on its payroll, worry Israelis. Mr. Sharaa’s lack of central control over Syria’s territory, or even his own troops, “is a huge problem, for him and for us,” a veteran Haifa University Mideast scholar, Amatzia Bar’am, says. Syria’s new strongman, it seems, has some work to do before peace with the Jewish state is complete.

Israelis Skeptical Even After Trump’s Embrace of Syria’s ‘Attractive’ Interim Ruler, a Former Terrorist Leader

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