In light of the ongoing military campaign by Assad’s forces and Russia against northern Syria, the commander of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (al-Nusra Front), Abou Mohamed al-Jolani, appeared in a televised interview on Sunday evening, in which he called for those with weapons to defend Idleb, saying that the Syrian and Russian escalation ended all agreements with regards to the Idleb region and its environs.
In an interview with an activist Taher al-Omar, who is close to the Tahrir al-Sham, and published on the Telegram app, Jolene said: “We call on anyone able to carry arms and anyone able to carry out the duty of jihad … to head to the battlefield.” Omar said that the interview was conducted in the northern Hama countryside.
Jolani, who appeared sitting on the ground among trees with a weapon, said that the latest escalation was “a result of the failure of the political conferences” and was an “attempt at political deception to encircle the Syrian revolution from Astana to Sochi.” He said that the current ongoing military campaign, “signalled the end of prior agreements and conferences and those who oversaw and participated in them,” showing that “military power alone” could be relied on.
With regards to the repeated bombardment of the Russian Hemeimeem base in the Lattakia countryside, Jolani said that, “it is the right of the revolutionaries to bombard this base, which has killed Syrian people,” adding that the, “Hemeimeem base is not a base of peace, but has bombarded civilians and the bombardment of it from the fronts is a reaction.” He said that “the equation is clear. If the Russian base wanted to stop the bombardment of Hemeimeem, they should simply stop supporting the regime and the killing of civilians.”
This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
