Abu Mohammad al-Jolani’s highway to Damascus It’s been a very long time. He spoke brazenly about his change alongside the way in which. From a younger al Qaeda fighter twenty years in the past, to a insurgent commander who espoused sectarian tolerance.
It’s a journey throughout which he had ample time to plan the place and the way he would mark his arrival and to fine-tune his narrative: his message to those that put him in energy, those that would possibly depose him, and others who they put in energy. can hold him in energy.
It is not any shock that the Islamist insurgent selected the commemorated Umayyad Mosque in Damascus – not a tv studio, nor a not too long ago deceased presidential palace, however a spot of huge spiritual significance, which at 1,300 years outdated is without doubt one of the oldest mosques on the planet – to ship this message.
“This victory, my brothers, is a victory for the complete Islamic nation,” he instructed his small entourage, stumbling behind him in opposition to the backdrop of the mosque’s distinctive black-and-white stone splendor.
It was a message to all those that had introduced him to energy and pushed his Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) fighters with astonishing velocity throughout Syria to oust President Bashir al-Assad.
It was additionally a message for the newly liberated Syrians. “This victory, my brothers, by the grace of Almighty God (follows) the sacrifices of martyrs, widows and orphans. This victory, my brothers, got here via the struggling of those that endured captivity,” he mentioned.
In a rustic the place the God you select and the way in which you pray can outline your class, restrict your aspirations and pit you in opposition to your neighbor, Jolani despatched a really clear sign to the Umayyad Mosque. He is a Sunni Muslim, a member of Syria’s majority. Assad was an Alawite. There are Christians, Druze, Shia Muslims, Ismailis and extra.
Yet the phrases he selected appeared destined to shatter these outdated boundaries. “This new triumph, my brothers, marks a brand new chapter within the historical past of the area, a historical past stuffed with risks (which has made Syria a playground for Iranian ambitions, spreading sectarianism and fomenting corruption,” he mentioned.
People welcome the chief of the Syrian Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, earlier than his speech on the Umayyad Mosque on December 8, 2024. – Aref Tammawi/AFP/Getty Images
Isolating Iran seems to be a message to Tehran’s theocracy: that their meddling is over, that their straightforward land entry to their mega Hezbollah in Lebanon is over, that their help for Syrian Hezbollah is over, and that it has disappeared even the house they as soon as had. Iran’s weapons stockpile.
But it is a message Jolani will know is heard in Tel Aviv and Washington, the place he’s thought-about a member of a proscribed terrorist group with a $10 million bounty on his head. A message that tells them: “your pursuits are included within the new Syria”, and the understanding on his half that these are the powers able to overthrowing him.
Jolani took nice pains throughout his run in Damascus to make sure that US President Joe Biden and even President-elect Donald Trump knew his intentions. It is not any coincidence that he selected an American tv community, CNN, and never an Arab one key interview within the days earlier than Assad’s ouster, claiming he had separated himself from different jihadists due to their brutal techniques.
Speaking just a few hours later, Biden mentioned he heard Jolani “saying the suitable issues” however insisted the insurgent chief was judged by his actions.
Jolani’s message was additionally tuned to the regional powers he should carry on facet, promising to wash issues up. “Syria is being purified,” he mentioned, referring to the nation’s regional status as a narco-state, saying Assad’s Syria has “change into the world’s most important supply of Captagon,” an amphetamine-like drug, and of crime within the area .
Jolani’s speech within the mosque was about arrival and survival. It is his actions, nonetheless, that make sure the latter.
For extra CNN information and newsletters, create an account at CNN.com
