UAE Official Expresses Concern Over New Syrian Leaders’ Islamist Ties

UAE Official Voices Concerns Over Islamist Ties of New Syrian Leadership

A senior UAE official said on Saturday that his government has concerns about the Islamist affiliation of the forces that ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Speaking at a global policy conference in Abu Dhabi, Anwar Gargash, an adviser to the UAE president, said: “We are asking for some reasonable, rational language about unity, not imposing one system on all Syrians.”

But “I think the nature of the new forces, the links to the (Muslim) Brotherhood, the links to al-Qaeda, these are all very worrying indicators,” he said.

“We need to be hopeful on the one hand and help the Syrians … but at the same time, we cannot ignore this region, we have seen episodes like this before, so we need to be careful,” Gargash said, citing the Islamic State group’s brutal adventures in both Syria and Iraq over the past decade.

Islamist-led rebel forces toppled Assad in a lightning assault on Sunday, ending his family’s five-decade rule and nearly 14 years of civil war.

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), rooted in al-Qaeda’s Syrian branch, carried out the attack and has been designated a “terrorist” organization by several Western governments, but has sought to moderate its rhetoric.

A transitional government installed by HTS-led forces has insisted that the rights of all Syrians will be protected, as will the rule of law.

As governments in the region and beyond watch developments in Syria with some concern, Gargash said the Arab world “has a responsibility to act without repeating the mistakes of the past.”

The presidential adviser condemned a wave of Israeli airstrikes on strategic military bases in Syria.

“Using the crisis in Syria to structurally dismantle Syrian capabilities may seem like a sensible thing to do from an Israeli pragmatic perspective, but I think it’s dumb politics,” Gargash said.

“This is a new Syria, it’s creating itself,” he said, adding that Israel “should have sent a different message, and I’m not saying a message of peace because we’re not there yet, but I think a different message.”

The United Arab Emirates normalized relations with Israel in 2020, one of the few Arab governments to do so.