HTS accused of dealing with government after aid entry to Idlib

IDLIB, Syria (North Press) – After allowing a humanitarian aid convoy coming from Syrian government-controlled areas to enter Idlib, a city in northwestern Syria, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS, formerly al-Nusra Front) is now accused of working as an operative for the government and Russia.

On Monday, a UN World Food Program (WFP) aid convoy, consisting of 14 trucks, entered Idlib from the government-controlled city of Saraqib.

Military expert Ahmad Rahhal said that this convoy “confirms the Russian claims that the Syrian regime has the right to monopolize and distribute all humanitarian aid provided.”

Rahhal added that Russia had already said that it would not approve the extension of UN resolution, handing the Syrian government full control of the humanitarian aid issue.

Russian Ambassador Vasily Nebenzia told the UN Security Council on April 27 that his country would not approve the extension of the UN resolution authorizing the delivery of humanitarian aid to Syria through the Turkish border crossing of Bab al-Hawa when the resolution expires in July.

In July 2021, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution which extended the mechanism for the delivery of humanitarian aid to Syria for a year through Bab al-Hawa crossing on the Turkish border, north of Idlib.

The HTS move irritated journalists and human rights activists in Idlib. They believed the HTS position aimed at “establishing a network of relations that guarantees its survival and control over Idlib regions.”

In a talk to North Press Rahhal said that the leader of the HTS, Abu Mohammad al-Julani, “does not care about the liberated areas or their residents, as he only cares about normalizing with Russia and the parties involved in the conflict in Syria.”

The HTS was formed in 2017. It controls vast lands in Idlib and Aleppo countryside.

Recognition  

This step comes to “legitimize the Syrian regime” by making it appears as the only party able to “deliver aid to all Syrian regions, including the areas of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the Syrian opposition,” according to Rahhal. 

“The Syrian regime counts primarily on the humanitarian aid to deal with the deteriorating living conditions in the areas under its control,” he added.

Muhammad Dibo, a pseudonym for a 35-year-old media activist residing in Idlib, said, “by allowing these convoys to enter Idlib, the HTS condoned all the documented massacres committed by the regime, the latest example was the circulated video of the Tadamon massacre.” It also ignored “the suffering experienced repeatedly by the detainees in the regime’s prisons.”

Reporting by Qays al-Abdullah