The US has labeled Nusra as a terrorist organization and is skeptical about the statement.
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State Department spokesman John Kirby said the Nusra Front’s announcement could simply be a rebranding exercise and the United States would judge it by its actions, goals and ideology. Both Russia and the USA consider the Nusra Front a fair target, but the Russians also target CIA-backed rebel groups and seem to focus mainly on propping up the Assad regime.
CNN notes that just two weeks ago, the United States announced closer cooperation with Russian Federation against the Nusra Front to “restore the cessation of hostilities, significantly reduce the violence and help create the space for a genuine and credible political transition” in Syria.
Ever since that attack, on March 17, 2012, the name of the Al Qaeda-affiliated Al Nusra Front has evoked fear in its enemies.
Al-Qaeda, founded by Osama bin Laden and to which Al-Nusra pledged allegiance in 2013, encouraged the split to protect “the jihad of the Syrian people”.
“Its “brotherhood” with another, also banned in Russian Federation organization, Al-Qaeda, as if discontinues”.
He said it would make “targeting of terrorist figures much more hard as they will be ever more deeply embedded in the wider insurgency”.
“Whatever the outcome, it remains hard to fathom how the majority of Jabhat al-Nusra’s leadership could truly renounce and give up their decades-long devotion to al-Qaida’s global vision”.
Beirut-The leader of al-Nusra Front Abu Mohamad al-Jolani struggled on Thursday to show a new face of the organization while announcing a decision to end the relationship of al-Nusra’s Syria branch with al-Qaeda.
Washington said it still considers Al-Nusra Front a security threat despite the announcement.
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.
Speaking in January, Kagan observed that the Nusra Front chose not to overtly attack the West “because the al-Qaeda leadership’s priority is preserving success in Syria and avoiding being targeted by the U.S”.
“We have stopped operating under the name of Nusra Front and formed a new body”.
Nusra differs from Islamic State in recruiting mainly Syrians and co-operating with other jihadi factions, although it has repeatedly kidnapped and killed US-trained and supported groups and can not be trusted, belying Golani’s claim the new name is meant to appear more “nationalist” with the aim of bringing together nationalist “jihadi” factions.
It is Syria’s preeminent jihadist force, along with its key rival, IS.
But if rebels grow closer to an ostensibly “al-Qaida-free” Levant Conquest Front, they are likely to see such an air campaign as just a pretext for Moscow to help Assad defeat insurgents.
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The army, backed by allied militia forces and air support from Syrian and Russian jets, has taken more ground on the northern edge of the city, around the Castello road which leads out toward Turkey.
