In a recording aired by Al Jazeera’s Arabic news channel, al-Julani thanked the “commanders of Al Qaeda for having understood the need to break ties”.
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Jolani was trying to comfort the West that his organization has no links to “any foreign party”. The maneuver removes a key obstacle Jabhat al Nusra faced in Syria, namely the al Qaeda brand name, but it does not denote a change in the group’s Salafi-jihadi ideology.
One leaked USA proposal would call for a sharing of intelligence and targeting for strikes against IS and Nusra on the condition Russian Federation commits to convince its ally Assad to ground Syria’s bombers and start a political transition process. It will also “cease operating under the name of Al Nusra Front”.
Charles Lister, an expert on Syrian jihadist groups and senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, profiled Jabhat al-Nusra for the Brookings Institution this month.
“We’re gonna have to wait and see”, said State Department spokesperson John Kirby.
“They have learned a lot from al-Qaida in that they play a much longer game than Isis”, the official said.
The Iranian diplomat further called on the worldwide community to pay special attention to the root causes of terrorism and its consequences, and to exert pressure on the founders and sponsors of these groups in order to eradicate them.
Al-Jolani said the split would mean the U.S. and Russian Federation could no longer use the “pretext” of its association with al-Qaeda to attack Syrians.
Its jihadists, battle-hardened veterans of other conflicts such as Iraq and Afghanistan, have become the opposition’s shock troops, essential to the success of any offensive against pro-government forces, whether launched by hard-line Islamist groups or the so-called moderate factions of the Free Syrian Army.
The break in ties could also facilitate relations between Nusra and other armed groups in Syria.
Bahram Ghasemi further stressed that the rebrand would not alter the terrorist nature of the Takfiri group, which is fighting in Syria to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad.
“What [Jolani] actually says (as best I can tell) is they are cancelling all operations as Nusrah, forming a new entity ‘Jabhat Fath Al Sham, ‘” Joscelyn tweeted.
He added that “we call on the leadership of Nusra Front to go ahead in order to preserve the interests of Islam and Muslims and protect the jihad of the Syrian people, and call on them to take the necessary steps”.
Unlike the IS group, which opposes all those who fail to swear allegiance, Al-Nusra has worked alongside an array of rebel groups fighting Assad’s regime and has popular support.
It was posted online by Al-Nusra – just hours before the organisation dumped its official affiliation with Al-Qaeda in a groundbreaking decision.
And referring to the USA and Russian Federation specifically, he criticized their “relentless bombardment and displacement of the Muslim masses of the Levant under the pretence of targeting Nusra Front, an Al-Qaeda affiliate”.
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Residents hold a Nusra Front flag during a demonstration celebrating their take over of Idlib and calling for the implementation of the Islamic Sharia law, in Al-Sakhour neighborhood of Aleppo April 24, 2015.
