Nobody buying the "new Nusra"

The announcement by Jabhat al-Nusra on July 28 that it was severing ties with al-Qaeda may be a sign of the terrorist organization’s increasing desperation. Russian and Iranian-backed Syrian forces have now encircled east Aleppo, where Jabhat al-Nusra and its Aleppo Conquest coalition allies have instituted brutal Sharia rule, as documented by Amnesty International. US-Russian negotiations may soon produce an agreement on military coordination that would bring further bad news for what is now called the Front for the Conquest of Syria, or Jabhat Fatah al-Sham.

The roll-out by Jabhat al-Nusra of its new brand would have been laugh-out-loud funny if there was a place for humor when dealing with the al-Qaeda affiliate and its bloody record in Syria and worldwide. Ahmed Hassan Abu al-Khayr, the deputy to al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri, announced that Zawahri had ordered the split “for the good of Islam and the Muslims.” Soon after, Al Jazeera television treated us to the smiling face of Jabhat al-Nusra leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, who reassured viewers that the terrorist group is not giving up any of its core beliefs and still reveres Osama bin Laden, and that the shift was a means to remove the "pretext" for the United States and Russia to conduct joint airstrikes.

The message should now be sent to Jabhat al-Nusra’s collaborators in Syria, including and especially Ahrar al-Sham, a front-and-center ally of Jabhat al-Nusra in northern Syria, that nobody is buying the switch and there is no reprieve. Those regional powers that continue to back Ahrar al-Sham and other Jabhat al-Nusra collaborators should be told, unambiguously, that the game is up. The Aleppo Conquest coalition organizations working with Jabhat al-Nusra, as documented in the Amnesty International report, are practitioners of an ideology and governance that is barely distinguishable from the Islamic State (IS). These armed groups therefore should not be characterized as “rebels” or “opposition.” As Raqqa may soon be "liberated" from IS, east Aleppo may soon be "liberated" as well from this al-Qaeda-led coalition.