Fighters from the former Jabhat Al Nusra – renamed Jabhat Fateh Al Sham – advance at an armament school after they announced they seized control of two military academies and a third military position last month, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.  Omar Haj Kadour / AFP
Fighters from the former Jabhat Al Nusra – renamed Jabhat Fateh Al Sham – advance at an armament school after they announced they seized control of two military academies and a third military positionShow more

The US focus on JFS ignores the real battleground



In the space of 10 days, Jabhat Fateh Al Sham (JFS) turned from a jihadist group embraced by various rebel forces in Syria to one criticised by the same parties. The shift has valuable lessons for how to deal with the group, which was formerly known as Jabhat Al Nusra.

As the United States pushed for a ceasefire that centred on the targeting of JFS as part of a US-Russian campaign, most of the anti-government forces rejected the agreement. The rebels considered the plan to be favourable to the regime of Bashar Al Assad and opposed the targeting of the effective jihadist force.

The show of solidarity prompted JFS to issue a thank-you letter to those forces, which included groups with which it had previously clashed. The letter referred favourably to rebel factions involved in the fight against ISIL with the help of Turkey in northern Syria – a remarkable move given that those factions were the centre of a new controversy among extremists. Extremist clerics said that because they consider the Turkish armed forces to be apostate, co-operating with them could amount to apostasy.

Ten days after this show of solidarity and a few days after the collapse of the ceasefire, JFS changed its tone. The group issued a new letter in which it ruled out cooperation with Turkey and any fighting in northern Syria other than against the regime. The statement said that Washington’s plan to attack JFS had changed matters and that cooperation with the US and Turkey in northern Syria could lead collaborators to excommunication.

This is even though those same rebels had opposed the plan initially, and they had done so at the cost of defying their American backers.

JFS’s fatwa also contradicted another fatwa issued by its closest military ally on the ground, Ahrar Al Sham, and demanded that the latter reconsider its religious opinion. Ahrar Al Sham sanctioned cooperation with Turkey, as did several other groups. Three of the participants in the Turkish-backed Operation Euphrates Shield made a firm declaration that they would continue to fight with Turkey against ISIL and sternly criticised JFS for its position. Opposition to the JFS fatwa also came from two of the main religious councils representing the Syrian rebels inside and outside the country.

The moral of the story is that the US plan to disentangle the rebels from JFS achieved the opposite effect, while the JFS-rebel fracture that Washington desired happened after the failure of the ceasefire when their interests collided.

This episode sums up what it could take to stem the dominance of JFS, and highlights Washington’s disastrously flawed policy towards the group. The attempt to cooperate with Moscow and indirectly with Damascus against JFS and to force the Syrian rebels to dissociate themselves from the group is both unrealistic and counterproductive.

If the Russian-American deal stood a chance of success a week ago, that chance was squandered by Washington’s failure to demand compliance from Russia. Moscow’s onslaught against humanitarian convoys and civilians in Aleppo, and the US failure to exercise its right of ensuring the deal was either implemented or immediately cancelled, complicated the deal many times over.

When JFS’s leader, Abu Muhammad Al Jolani, suggested in his interview on Al Jazeera last week that Washington was helping the Syrian regime, he was capitalising on the sense of anger many in Syria have towards the American position.

The US seeks to refocus efforts into a battle it considers a priority, while it neglects the main and worst battle in the country. Concerns about jihadist groups such as JFS are well known, but the US has failed to justify its silence about foreign militias fighting on the side of the regime. The US does not treat both militant sides as even remotely equal threats and, worse, seems willing to turn a blind eye towards Shia militias fighting in Aleppo while it seeks to cooperate indirectly with them against JFS in the same areas.

If many in Iraq were angered by the US cooperation with pro-government militias defending their areas or helping the army fighting ISIL, attacking JFS under a plan that not only deals in double standards but threatens to upset the balance of power in favour of the regime is a guaranteed disaster.

Washington still hopes to revive the deal with Russia to fight JFS despite its catastrophic failure and the way Russia conducted itself while the deal was supposedly in force. In a joint statement issued on Saturday, the foreign ministers of five western countries, including the US, reaffirmed their commitment to the destruction of JFS and asked Russia to “take extraordinary steps to restore the credibility of our efforts”. In reality, however, only the US can restore the credibility of its effort – and it might already be too late.

Hassan Hassan is a resident fellow at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy and co-author of ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror

On Twitter: @hxhassan

Thank You for Banking with Us

Director: Laila Abbas

Starring: Yasmine Al Massri, Clara Khoury, Kamel El Basha, Ashraf Barhoum

Rating: 4/5

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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TRAP

Starring: Josh Hartnett, Saleka Shyamalan, Ariel Donaghue

Director: M Night Shyamalan

Rating: 3/5

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If you go

The flights

Emirates flies from Dubai to Seattle from Dh5,555 return, including taxes. Portland is a 260 km drive from Seattle and Emirates offers codeshare flights to Portland with its partner Alaska Airlines.

The car

Hertz (www.hertz.ae) offers compact car rental from about $300 per week, including taxes. Emirates Skywards members can earn points on their car hire through Hertz.

Parks and accommodation

For information on Crater Lake National Park, visit www.nps.gov/crla/index.htm . Because of the altitude, large parts of the park are closed in winter due to snow. While the park’s summer season is May 22-October 31, typically, the full loop of the Rim Drive is only possible from late July until the end of October. Entry costs $25 per car for a day. For accommodation, see www.travelcraterlake.com. For information on Umpqua Hot Springs, see www.fs.usda.gov and https://soakoregon.com/umpqua-hot-springs/. For Bend, see https://www.visitbend.com/.

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Zimbabwe v UAE, ODI series

All matches at the Harare Sports Club

  • 1st ODI, Wednesday, April 10
  • 2nd ODI, Friday, April 12
  • 3rd ODI, Sunday, April 14
  • 4th ODI, Sunday, April 16

Squads:

  • UAE: Mohammed Naveed (captain), Rohan Mustafa, Ashfaq Ahmed, Shaiman Anwar, Mohammed Usman, CP Rizwan, Chirag Suri, Mohammed Boota, Ghulam Shabber, Sultan Ahmed, Imran Haider, Amir Hayat, Zahoor Khan, Qadeer Ahmed
  • Zimbabwe: Peter Moor (captain), Solomon Mire, Brian Chari, Regis Chakabva, Sean Williams, Timycen Maruma, Sikandar Raza, Donald Tiripano, Kyle Jarvis, Tendai Chatara, Chris Mpofu, Craig Ervine, Brandon Mavuta, Ainsley Ndlovu, Tony Munyonga, Elton Chigumbura
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Tree of Hell

Starring: Raed Zeno, Hadi Awada, Dr Mohammad Abdalla

Director: Raed Zeno

Rating: 4/5

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MATCH INFO

Fixture: Thailand v UAE, Tuesday, 4pm (UAE)

TV: Abu Dhabi Sports

COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
 
Started: 2020
 
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
 
Based: Dubai, UAE
 
Sector: Entertainment 
 
Number of staff: 210 
 
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
AGL AWARDS

Golden Ball - best Emirati player: Khalfan Mubarak (Al Jazira)
Golden Ball - best foreign player: Igor Coronado (Sharjah)
Golden Glove - best goalkeeper: Adel Al Hosani (Sharjah)
Best Coach - the leader: Abdulaziz Al Anbari (Sharjah)
Fans' Player of the Year: Driss Fetouhi (Dibba)
Golden Boy - best young player: Ali Saleh (Al Wasl)
Best Fans of the Year: Sharjah
Goal of the Year: Michael Ortega (Baniyas)

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The specs

  Engine: 2-litre or 3-litre 4Motion all-wheel-drive Power: 250Nm (2-litre); 340 (3-litre) Torque: 450Nm Transmission: 8-speed automatic Starting price: From Dh212,000 On sale: Now

The specs

Engine: Dual 180kW and 300kW front and rear motors

Power: 480kW

Torque: 850Nm

Transmission: Single-speed automatic

Price: From Dh359,900 ($98,000)

On sale: Now

Three ways to limit your social media use

Clinical psychologist, Dr Saliha Afridi at The Lighthouse Arabia suggests three easy things you can do every day to cut back on the time you spend online.

1. Put the social media app in a folder on the second or third screen of your phone so it has to remain a conscious decision to open, rather than something your fingers gravitate towards without consideration.

2. Schedule a time to use social media instead of consistently throughout the day. I recommend setting aside certain times of the day or week when you upload pictures or share information. 

3. Take a mental snapshot rather than a photo on your phone. Instead of sharing it with your social world, try to absorb the moment, connect with your feeling, experience the moment with all five of your senses. You will have a memory of that moment more vividly and for far longer than if you take a picture of it.

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APPLE IPAD MINI (A17 PRO)

Display: 21cm Liquid Retina Display, 2266 x 1488, 326ppi, 500 nits

Chip: Apple A17 Pro, 6-core CPU, 5-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine

Storage: 128/256/512GB

Main camera: 12MP wide, f/1.8, digital zoom up to 5x, Smart HDR 4

Front camera: 12MP ultra-wide, f/2.4, Smart HDR 4, full-HD @ 25/30/60fps

Biometrics: Touch ID, Face ID

Colours: Blue, purple, space grey, starlight

In the box: iPad mini, USB-C cable, 20W USB-C power adapter

Price: From Dh2,099

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UAE squad

Ali Kashief, Salem Rashid, Khalifa Al Hammadi, Khalfan Mubarak, Ali Mabkhout, Omar Abdelrahman, Mohammed Al Attas (Al Jazira), Mohmmed Al Shamsi, Hamdan Al Kamali, Mohammad Barghash, Khalil Al Hammadi (Al Wahda), Khalid Eisa, Mohammed Shakir, Ahmed Barman, Bandar Al Ahbabi (Al Ain), Adel Al Hosani, Al Hassan Saleh, Majid Suroor (Sharjah), Waleed Abbas, Ismail Al Hammadi, Ahmed Khalil (Shabab Al Ahli Dubai) Habib Fardan, Tariq Ahmed, Mohammed Al Akbari (Al Nasr), Ali Saleh, Ali Salmeen (Al Wasl), Hassan Al Mahrami (Baniyas)