*|MC_PREVIEW_TEXT|*
SIGN UP NOW : View From London (Wednesdays)

Hello from The National and welcome to the View from London – your weekly guide to the big stories from our London bureau


Influencing the new Syria

Without fanfare or the formality of a ministerial visit, the UK is quietly shaping Syria’s post-Assad transition through low-key social and diplomatic links, The National can reveal.

Sources have disclosed that the UK’s National Security Adviser Jonathan Powell recently held a meeting with the new administration, boosting suggestions he will play a leading role in relations.

The UK’s long-standing support for the opposition in Syria, and envoy Ann Snow’s recent engagement with the new administration, had placed UK relations on a par with Germany and France, a former diplomat for the traditional Syrian opposition told The National.

"The UK supported change since 2011 and they supported the opposition in many ways. The relationship and contact is there, and there is mutual understanding,” said Walid Saffour, who was exiled to the UK more than 40 years ago and represented the Syrian National Coalition in the UK in 2012.

Razan Saffour, far right in blue headscarf, accompanied Syrian President Ahmad Al Shara and Foreign Minister Asaad Al Shibani to Saudi Arabia. AFP

Meanwhile, a new generation of British-Syrians are known to be advising the new administration. Among them is Razan Saffour, Mr Saffour’s daughter, who became a prominent voice of the opposition during the civil war.

She travelled with Syria’s interim leader Ahmad Al Shara during his first official state visit to Saudi Arabia and sat in on the meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. She also accompanied Foreign Affairs Minister Asaad Al Shibani to the Munich Security Conference last week. Ms Saffour was born and raised in London, where she studied at the School of Oriental and African Studies.

Oxford-educated barrister Ibrahim Al Olabi was appointed as an adviser for human rights to the new administration. Mr Al Olabi practises at law firm Guernica 37 and is the founder of the UK-based NGO the Syrian Legal Development Programme.

Two sources confirmed a recent meeting between Mr Powell and Syria’s new administration and it is thought he had established back-channel contact with Hayat Tahrir Al Sham before it took power, through Inter Mediate, the negotiation and diplomacy charity he co-founded.

Jonathan Powell held a low-key meeting with the new Syrian administration. Getty Images

In 2021 it was claimed that Mr Powell had even met Mr Al Shara, although that was denied by the Syrian group.

Mr Powell – who was the chief negotiator in Northern Ireland peace talks that led to the Good Friday agreement – is an advocate of engagement with terrorist groups and has said that the lessons from the Troubles can be applied to other conflicts.

Taking the appropriate tone with the new regime will be key, according to former British Army officer Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, who has written extensively on Syria and has been in the country this month.

“The revolution which toppled the old guard in Damascus grew out of north-west Syria, and the interim President … appears to be a viable leader," said Mr de Bretton-Gordon. "The Syrians I know, some very close to the new team, tell me they are the real deal.

“Britain is uniquely placed through the British-Syrian diaspora to make a real difference.”

Paul Carey
Deputy London bureau chief


Extremism rising

The West’s response to the war in Gaza has caused a degree of anger that will inevitably lead to a rise in radicalisation among young Muslims, the UK’s leading counter-extremism expert has warned.

Dame Sara Khan told The National she had never known such hostility from Muslims, who are outraged that the western democracies they have embraced appear to have taken the rule of law “with a pinch of salt” when it comes to the more than 48,200 Palestinians killed in the conflict.

Israel’s actions in Gaza, which countries such as the US, UK and Germany have failed to suppress, are “going to have a consequence”, she said.

Sara Khan, the British Muslim human rights activist, has warned of a growing threat of extremism

She said middle-class Muslims, such as her banker and lawyer friends, were incensed at “how cheap Palestinian life seems to be” in the eyes of the West. “In the case of Palestinian lives, these laws and rules don't seem to matter,” the UK’s former commissioner for countering extremism said.

This was deeply worrying for most of Britain’s four million Muslims, she said. “It’s something new, I've really never seen that level of anger.”

Dame Sara said it was breeding "disillusionment” in western democracy and predicted it would cause “a whole load of societal problems that are going to come down the pipeline very soon”.

She is concerned for the younger generation who have seen the grim images from Gaza. “This is a reality we will have to deal with in the next couple of years.”


Visit Britain

Record numbers of tourists from the UAE and Gulf regions are expected to visit the UK this year and spend an estimated £3.5 billion.

In its inbound tourism forecast for 2025, VisitBritain has found 548,000 UAE visitors will travel to the UK – up 10 per cent on the 2024 estimate. Their spending is expected to jump by 22 per cent to £1.1 billion this year on their trips to the UK, according to Oxford Economics.

The number of tourists from GCC countries visiting the UK is also set to rise to 1.4 million, an eight per cent rise on the 2024 estimate. The largest spending increase (29 per cent) will be from visitors from Saudi Arabia, an estimated 320,000, who are predicted to spend £942 million this year.

VisitBritain chief executive Patricia Yates told The National the Middle East is a key market for British tourism. “The GCC, including the UAE, are very important inbound visitor markets for the UK, and it is fantastic to see the continued strong growth forecast in visits and spend,” she said.

OTHER STORIES

Social Icon Social Icon Social Icon Social Icon