Syria’s Rebel Leader Is No Moderate

Excerpt

Once head of al Qaeda’s branch in Syria, Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani is now the most powerful man in the country. He is leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the U.S.-designated terrorist organization that overthrew Bashar al-Assad this month. Western leaders are responding to this development with relative calm because Mr. Jawlani supposedly broke with al Qaeda in 2016.

But has this new leader really rejected what al Qaeda stands for and severed ties with al Qaeda’s extended network? Mr. Jawlani delivered an address in 2016 in which he disavowed “affiliation with any external entity.” Many reporters and analysts interpreted that comment as a repudiation of al Qaeda. Yet one of al Qaeda’s high-ranking leaders approved in advance of Mr. Jawlani’s rebranding.

Mr. Adesnik is vice president of research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Mr. Roggio is a senior fellow at the foundation and editor of its Long War Journal.