[Centraal] Crisis in Syrië en Irak #485 Conflicten laaien weer op

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Crossroads in Idlib: HTS navigating internal divisions amid popular discontent

As the world focuses on Israel’s war in Gaza, northwest Syria is undergoing a significant political upheaval that could lead to major instability. For the last three months, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an armed Sunni Islamist group that governs more 4.5 million people in the Idlib region, has been facing widespread protests. Rejecting the group’s policies, the demonstrators have called for the removal of its leader Abu Muhammad al-Jolani, the release of detainees, and the improvement of living conditions. The protests come at a difficult time for HTS, which has faced other recent challenges as well, including the assassination, on April 5, of one of its most senior figures, Abu Maria al-Qahtani, who was released from a prison run by the group after over six months in detention for what has been described as collaboration with external entities. Additionally, in December 2023, another high-ranking figure, Abu Ahmad Zakour, who was in charge of HTS's relationships with the Syrian National Army (SNA), defected from the group and escaped to Turkish-controlled areas of Syria after HTS sent a heavily armed unit to apprehend him, resulting in the death of his associate.

This article examines these recent developments and argues that it is HTS’s shift, beginning in 2017, from a jihadi group primarily concerned with fighting the Syrian regime and its allies into a clientelist regime in which different internal factions compete for financial gain and influence that has led to the current political turmoil and likely the assassination of al-Qahtani. HTS now faces a critical juncture: Widespread public unrest and deepening internal divisions among the most influential figures within the group pose a formidable challenge that threatens HTS’s unity and cohesion. Should it fail to meet public demands and bridge the divides between its competing factions, northwest Syria’s future will be more uncertain than ever.

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News site editor’s ties to Iran, Russia show misinformation’s complexity

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A top editor at an online news site aimed at Americans who has worked extensively for Russia’s Sputnik also has taken money from Iranian government-owned media, according to newly unearthed documents — a sign of how widening geopolitical alliances are making it harder to identify and trace foreign influence operations.

Hacked emails and other documents from the Iranian government-funded Press TV show payments of thousands of dollars to Wyatt Reed, a writer who is now a Washington-based editor for the online publication Grayzone. In addition, the site’s founder, Max Blumenthal, regularly appears on Russian television and once accepted a trip to Moscow for a celebration of Russian state-controlled video network RT that featured Vladimir Putin.

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Grayzone does not disclose its financial backing. Little-known among most segments of the population, it has hundreds of thousands of followers on YouTube and X, and its stories sometimes ricochet among both the far left and the far right. X owner Elon Musk has helped that, corresponding on his platform last year with Grayzone personality Aaron Maté when Maté accused the investigative website Bellingcat of being a NATO front and said the White House had squelched talk of a negotiated settlement in Ukraine.

Grayzone founder and editor Blumenthal appears on RT and attended the same 2015 Moscow gala dinner for it that Michael Flynn famously joined. More recently, he promoted the false theory that Russia’s bombing of a theater full of refugees in Mariupol in 2022 was carried out by Ukraine’s forces.

Describing itself as an independent investigative news site, Grayzone has endured in part because it defies easy categorization. Many of its articles strike a leftist tone, and its coverage has been positive toward Russia, Syria, and other authoritarian states.

Like many sources suspected of misinformation and propaganda, Grayzone mixes falsehoods and misleading insinuation with truth. But it is unusual in that some of its leaders have worked in traditional journalism and that it produces some material incorporating significant research.

One such story devoted thousands of words to allege widespread Israeli attacks against its own citizens on Oct. 7 while saying that Hamas treated hostages well and used “clever” tactics. That article by Blumenthal distorted the material from sources it cited, Israelis complained, conflating separate incidents to make it seem that troops repeatedly fired indiscriminately at Israelis near Hamas targets.

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Internationaal aanhoudingsbevel tegen Syrische president Assad is geldig en blijft van kracht, zegt Franse rechtbank

Het internationale aanhoudingsbevel tegen de Syrische president Bashar Al-Assad is geldig en blijft van kracht. Dat heeft een Franse rechtbank in beroep beslist. Het bevel was uitgevaardigd door een Franse onderzoeksrechter in november vorig jaar, voor de betrokkenheid van Assad bij oorlogsmisdaden en misdaden tegen de menselijkheid tijdens de burgeroorlog in Syrië.

Concreet is het aanhoudingsbevel tegen Assad er gekomen in het kader van een Frans onderzoek naar chemische aanvallen met zenuwgas tegen burgers in 2013. Het Syrische leger zou daarvoor verantwoordelijk zijn. Meer dan 1.000 mensen kwamen bij de aanvallen om het leven, en duizenden geraakten gewond. Ook tegen de broer van Assad, die een elite-eenheid van het Syrische leger leidt, werd een aanhoudingsbevel uitgeschreven, en tegen 2 generaals.

Het Franse anti-terrorismeparket, dat de instructie aan de politie zou moeten geven om naar dat aanhoudingsbevel te handelen, had beroep aangetekend tegen het aanhoudingsbevel voor Assad. Volgens het parket zou hij als staatshoofd volledige gerechtelijke immuniteit genieten. Maar de rechtbank is niet meegegaan in die redenering.

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Op dinsdag 6 augustus 2024 21:27 schreef egayalS het volgende:

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geen idee of ik dat stuk van the washington post ook maar enige waarde moet geven, omdat grote delen van zowel westerse media net zoals westerse regeringen, parlementen met hun eigen desinformatie campagnes bezig waren en nog steeds zijn mbt waar israel mee bezig is gaza of mbt pro palestina demos.

zelfs als ze geld hebben ontvangen van iran of rusland, so what?

westerse landen steunen zoveel media rondom de wereld.

uit het stuk:

A previous version of this article incorrectly said that leaders of the online news site Grayzone had received payments from Iranian media, according to recently unearthed documents. The documents show that only one of the site's editors received such payments. The article has been corrected.