Intel: US Syria envoy says Turkey must put pressure on Idlib militants

Apr 30, 2020

Turkey should keep up the pressure on the hard-line Islamist group in control of Syria’s embattled Idlib province, the US special envoy for Syria said today. 

“We hope to see the Turks continue to put pressure on the terrorist organizations there, the most powerful of them Hayat Tahrir al-Sham,” Ambassador James Jeffrey said while speaking at a virtual panel hosted by the Washington-based Atlantic Council. 

“The problems with that organization and others have given the Russians and the Syrian government the excuse before to break the cease-fire,” said Jeffrey. “We don’t want them to have that excuse this time.” 

Why it matters: Syria’s Idlib province is home to a number of rival opposition groups, including Turkey-backed rebel factions and the al-Qaeda derivative Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. 

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which wrested control of Idlib province from its more moderate rivals in January 2019, is considered a terrorist organization by Russia, Turkey and the United States, as well as the UN Security Council. The latest annual report by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, released this week, calls on Washington to designate Hayat Tahrir al-Sham an “entity of particular concern.”